During the Oscars, many people got the pleasant experience of hearing both Sean Penn, star of "Milk," and Dustin Lance Black, writer of "Milk," delivering heartfelt speeches that included yearning for equality, regardless of sexual orientation. For millions of people in Asia, Penn and Black didn't even utter the word "gay" in their speeches, thanks to the Asian government's censorship.

While most people saw this:



China's censors purposely mistranslated Penn's speech, so that instead of saying, "You commie, homo-loving sons of guns," he was made out to say, "You really are so generous." The portion of his speech that condemned people who oppose same-sex marriage was translated into simply, "Everyone has equal rights."

And while most people saw this:



Viewers in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Taiwan and Thailand saw a heavily censored speech that eliminated all of openly gay Dustin Lance Black's heartfelt talk of longing for equality, urging that gay/lesbian people are, "Beautiful, wonderful creatures of value."

It pains me that talking about equality, respect, and love are considered obscene by Asian censorship standards. Really, what kind of world do we live in?