Olivia Chiong maintained the blog The Chiongs to share her family's experience, perspective and joy in rearing a child born of same-sex marriage. Olivia is married to Irene Chiong. Their family is based in Singapore.
According to BuzzFeed, the couple noticed a heavy traffic on their website this week and found out that one of their post "Why We are The Chiongs" was shared on a Facebook page "We are against Pinkdot Singapore" (WAAPD).
Pink Dot SG is a non-profit event held annually in support of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community in Singapore. The attendees of the event formed a pink dot to show their support for freedom and diversity of love, thus, the name of the organization.
According to The Online Citizen, the event is held at Hong Lim Park and it began in 2009. Since then, it has attracted an even growing number of supporters.
The blog that started the controversy was intentionally shared on a page that does not support the Chiong's family structure and it reaped several hateful comments criticizing the couple for their non-typical relationship that remains unacceptable to conservative families.
This prompted the couple to post another blog, "A Letter to Our Favourite Hate Group" in an attempt to address the criticism against their family.
Olivia's post was a satire. One can sense humor and irony to each response, which makes the whole blog very compelling to read. The post was designed to address the people who misunderstood their family.
In the post, the couple addressed a certain Jeremy Chan, who questioned their parenthood to daughter Zooey and the books they provided to the baby. As a response, the couple wrote:
"Dear Jeremy Chan, I am happy to let you know that there was no magic or cultism involved. There were no white unicorns flying in on rainbows to deliver the baby. It was all done in the same way as everyone else—in the operating theatre at KK hospital by a senior doctor. All very ordinary."
They added that their daughter has over 500 diverse books, adding that they want their daughter to be exposed to learning, so she will grow up with an open-mind and be understanding and accepting.
Peter Shee, another Facebook user, condemned the couple of the alleged emotional and psychological problems they bring to their daughter. Shee wanted the couple in jail, so the Chiongs responded with: "Dear Peter Shee, I am happy to let you know that Zoey is a well-adjusted and well-liked child in her school .....we haven't done any crime so I'm pretty sure we don't belong there. Since you are so convinced that we have committed a crime, why don't you make a police report? I'm sure the police would be very interested."
The couple thanked the readers of WAAPD because of the uproar it created online, which all the more raised awareness about their blog. They ended the blog stating that they will be joining the upcoming Pink Dot this Saturday and extended a sincere invitation to the WAAPD community to join "the biggest, most loving and pro-family picnic ever."
