A lovely story from @violazhouyi: "The happy couple stood in their living room in Guangzhou, #China, where same-sex marriage is illegal. The ceremony took place at midnight. And the officiant, appearing on Zoom, was in Utah." restofworld.org/2022/chinese-s…
"Since the county rolled out virtual weddings during the Covid-19 pandemic, it became a wedding haven for same-sex couples who are not able to officially marry in their own countries."
"As sexual minorities in China face suppression at home, Utah County is allowing them to officially marry and celebrate their love — all for around $100. Although the marriages aren’t recognized in China, some 200 same-sex couples from mainland China and Hong Kong ...
... have gotten married via the county’s digital marriage license system since 2021."
"At the start of the pandemic, a number of couples requested Zoom ceremonies, and the county made those available as well. The service first attracted couples in Utah, followed by people from across the U.S., and later, from all over the world."
"Xu and Zhu told Rest of World that they wanted to get married one day, but didn’t think it was worth traveling overseas. When they heard of a close friend getting married through a Zoom meeting in Utah, they decided to go for it."
“It sounded very cheap and convenient,” said Xu, a tech product manager.
"Kimberly Wang, the Europe-based founder of wedding-planning business Unlimited, told Rest of World that she has organized Zoom weddings for about 50 couples, mostly lesbian, since February.
On Chinese social media, Wang advertises her business with coded language to avoid censorship of terms such as “same-sex” and “lesbian.”"
“It made our love stronger,” Liu told Rest of World, two months after their wedding. “My husband was talking more about our responsibilities. Before we would think we might break up some day, but now we can’t just break up.”
"On the night itself, more than 60 family and friends showed up for the midnight ceremony, including one who joined them in the living room as an interpreter. Zhu said Frei’s marriage pep talk gave the otherwise-bureaucratic procedure a human touch. "
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