25 January 2014

Heterosexuality: Priceless

I am going to make the worst pun of the year (so far, anyway).

Here goes:  What I am about to report is just priceless.

Even the most tolerant and understanding of parents may feel concern and even a twinge of disappointment when their kids "come out."  After all, nearly all parents want their kids to be safe, and they naturally worry that their queer son or daughter is at greater risk of being bullied, harassed, assaulted or even killed than a straight (or seemingly-straight) or cisgender kid.  And, let's face it, most parents still have the fantasy  of their kids meeting the "right" person of the opposite gender and having kids.

Of course, even such attitudes and responses are better than trying to "beat it out" of the kid or throwing him or her out of the house.  Then there are those parents who try to use "incentives" to make their kids straight:  They send their kids on "blind" dates with kids of the opposite gender or encourage them to do things considered appropriate to the gender they were assigned at birth.  

I always figured that some parent probably offered financial incentives, though I'd never met or heard about one--until now.

Cecil Chao is a Hong Kong billionaire who claims to have slept with 10,000 women.  One would think that such a man would understand why someone would want to sleep with a women.  So it seems a bit incongruous, at least to me, that he would offer $130 million US to any man who can turn his daughter, who married her girlfriend in France, straight.

Being the charitable person I am, I am willing to believe he isn't a homophobe.  Perhaps he's just afraid of commitment--or, specifically, committing to a woman--and his daughter's marriage has made it clear.

For her part, his daughter Gigi says she wouldn't mind a man taking  up the offer as long as he's OK with her marriage and is willing to donate at least some of the money to her favorite causes.