Trans woman tells strangers ‘hug me or throw water on me’ – the response is amazing
Trans woman stands in street with ‘hug me or throw water on me’ sign. (Đỗ Bá Duy/Facebook)
A trans woman conducted a social experiment in which she asked people to “hug me or throw water on me” – and people’s sweet responses gave her “faith”.
Đỗ Bá Duy posted footage of the experiment in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to Facebook, explaining she had a “positive response from everyone”.
According to vnExpress, the 22-year-old filmed the video for a communication contest in a transgender beauty pageant.
She explained that while standing on a busy street with the sign and bottles of water, she was hugged by more than 100 strangers.
Nobody threw water in the 90 minutes she stood there.
“While wives hugged me, their husbands smiled and shook my hands,” Duy told the outlet.
Duy explained that a few of the strangers complimented her, while one man took one of the bottles of water, drank it, and said “you do not deserve to [have] thrown water at”.
She told vnExpress: “These compliments give me more faith and strength to face life’s challenges.”
She explained to the publication she came out as trans at age 17, and that her mother struggled to accept her gender identity at first. However, she “cried” when she saw the viral video.
“I hope the clips about my social experiment will inspire those in need to think more positively in life as well as help spread awareness of LGBT [issues],” she said.
Though Vietnam does boast some LGBTQ+ protections, including the legal right to gender recognition, brought forward in 2015, a shocking report in 2020 found some Vietnamese children were still being taught at home and at school that being gay is a “disease”.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported at the time some young people were told being gay is a “mental illness”, despite some progress from the government on LGBTQ+ rights.
Graeme Reid of HRW told The Guardian in 2020: “Largely thanks to a vibrant civil society-led LGBT rights movement, social awareness and acceptance of sexual orientation and gender identity has increased greatly in recent years in Vietnam.
“The government’s actions, however, have so far not officially reflected these changes.
