This weekend hundreds of people will pedal through Hanoi on bicycles to

This weekend hundreds of people will pedal through Hanoi on bicycles to mark the country’s second gay pride parade.

The scale of events across the country, from dance performances, film screenings and a book launch, reflects wider acceptance of debate on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues over the last year in several South-East Asian countries.

In Vietnam, just a few years ago the only representation of gay people in the media was of petty criminals and prostitutes.

Now, training workshops for local journalists and grassroots campaigns such as flash mobs are challenging those negative stereotypes.

Despite some speculation that Vietnam could become the first country in South-East Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, it was not included in a recently approved proposal on revisions to the Marriage and Family Law.

However, the draft does remove the article banning such unions in the current law and includes provisions for same-sex couples who live together.

The National Assembly is to discuss the proposal in October and it is due to be passed in April 2014.

Vietnam is not the only country considering advancing LGBT rights to marry.

In Thailand, a draft law is being prepared for parliament which would give LGBT and intersex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples.

The only restrictions will be that at least one of the partners must be a Thai national, and both must be at least 20 years old.

Attitudes to homosexuality appear to be changing in conservative, tightly controlled Singapore, too. Section 377 of the Penal Code – a hangover from the colonial era – still criminalizes homosexual acts between men, who can be imprisoned for up to two years for “gross indecency”.

However, the law is rarely enforced and the courts are currently considering two challenges to its constitutionality.

But the trend does not cover all South-East Asian countries, in many of which an event like Viet Pride or Pink Dot would not be acceptable.

In 2011, a court ruling in Malaysia banned an annual sexual rights festival, Seksualiti Merdeka, on the grounds that it would cause public disorder.

– SAPA