Gay China News & Reports 2009

China announced in 2008 plans for an extensive programme to tackle sharply rising rates of HIV amongst men who have sex with men (MSM), in the latest sign that the country may be starting to face up to a crisis which long seemed taboo. Announcing the MSM campaign, the ministry of health said that risky sexual behaviour was the biggest single factor behind the spread of HIV in mainland China, excluding Hong Kong, and that men who had sex with men were now the group most likely to become infected with the virus. In China there are around 700,000 people living with HIV, and 11.1 percent of these are MSM.

“In the past between 1 and 3 percent of MSM on the mainland had HIV; Now it is anywhere from 2.5 to 6.5 percent”, Hao Yang, deputy chief of the ministry’s disease prevention and control bureau, was quoted as saying by the China Daily. The campaign involved targeted prevention measures for the estimated 5-10 million- Chinese MSM, including stronger promotion of condom use, expanded coverage and quality of HIV prevention activities, increased access to voluntary HIV counselling and testing services, and improved access to treatment for sexually transmitted infections. As a starting point for its new large-scale campaign to reduce HIV among MSM, China is aiming for some 21,000 MSM to be HIV-tested in order to be able to establish a clearer statistical baseline for the infection rate. This is the largest such study undertaken anywhere in the world and the first of its kind in Asia.

Its prevention effort will involve MSM community based organizations (CBOs) and civil society at all levels. Community-based organisations are carrying out AIDS awareness campaigns, VCT referrals, peer education, safer sex promotion and condom distribution; hot-lines are being run and internet chat rooms and websites used. UNAIDS, the joint United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS, sees the empowering of MSM and other marginalized groups to protect themselves from HIV as one of the main elements of the global AIDS response.

"The Chinese government has made addressing HIV prevention among MSM a priority and that is something which UNAIDS welcomes," said Bernhard Schwartlander, UNAIDS Country Coordinator in China. But despite progress in China, a number of shortcomings remain, with stigma and discrimination still all too prevalent amongst the general population and even within the MSM community itself. It is estimated that by late 2007, only 8 percent of MSM had been reached by comprehensive HIV prevention interventions. Furthermore, more than half of China’s MSM have more than one sexual partner but only between 10 and 20 percent of them use condoms, according to health ministry estimates.

“It is critical that the government and the many MSM working groups find ways to improve their ability to work together in open and nondiscriminatory partnerships", said Schwartlander.

Largely ignored
Developments in China come amidst indications that governments elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region are also becoming more willing to acknowledge an epidemic that many had previously largely ignored. In most Asian countries MSM remains an uncomfortable subject: in many of them, sex between men is illegal and reports of harassment are frequent. As a result, there has been little in the way of specific support for programmes for MSM.

“A lot of attention is being drummed up, but a lot more needs to happen,” said Paul Causey, a Bangkok-based consultant working with the Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health (APCOM) and the United Nations on MSM-related issues. Most Asian men who have sex with other men are not open about their sexual behaviour. Social taboos and discrimination mean that many opt to disguise their sexual preferences; for many others, their sexual practices with other men may only be a small part of social roles they play or their sexual lives. Given that many men who have sex with men also have sex with women, high HIV rates among MSM can also translate into substantial numbers of women at risk of exposure to HIV.

The combination of high numbers of partners with high-risk behaviour such as unprotected anal intercourse has been a key factor behind the accelerating HIV infection rate in many Asian cities. It said that hardly any Asian country is devoting significant resources to MSM, despite the fact that prevention costs a lot less than treatment. According to the commission, $1 invested in effective prevention can save up to $8 in treatment expenditure for expanding epidemic countries.

Engaging community groups
The tipping point in awakening to the dimension of the MSM crisis was the convening of a special conference in New Delhi in September 2006 entitled “Risks and Responsibilities: Male Sexual Health and HIV in Asia and Pacific”. The conference was truly tripartite, bringing together governments, donors and 380 members of community groups. As important as the event itself was the run-up, with 16 countries holding UNAIDS-sponsored preparatory meetings. In some cases, including that of China, it was virtually the first time that government officials and representatives from the wider MSM community groups met to assess the situation and discuss solutions.

One of the other lasting achievements of that conference was the decision to launch APCOM, which brings together civil society groups, government sector representatives, donors, technical experts and the United Nations to push for an effective response to the rising HIV incidence amongst MSM. Its efforts complement those of a United Nations technical working group on MSM and HIV/AIDS in China launched in mid-2006. The group is led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

“The technical working group is working with government, MSM community groups and donors to improve co-ordination and communication, build government capacities to involve civil society organisations (CSOs) in policy-making and public service delivery, and develop the institutional and professional capacities of CSOs,” said Edmund Settle, HIV manager for UNDP in China.

2009 March 20 – China Daily

2
Expert: Marriage dogma against gay may fuel AIDS

Beijing – Social expectations that men must get married is forcing homosexual males into heterosexual marriages and exposing married women to HIV infection, a Chinese expert warned Thursday. Zhang Beichuan, professor from the Qingdao University, said the fact that gay men are often forced into heterosexual marriages boosts the risk of HIV infection among other social groups in the country.

"The stigma and discrimination against homosexuals in Chinese society have prevented gay men from revealing their sexual orientation or taking HIV/AIDS tests and treatments, holding back the efforts to curb the disease," Zhang told Xinhua Thursday by phone. Zhang and his team conducted a survey in nine major cities including Shanghai, Nanjing, Harbin, Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Shenyang, Xian, Wuhan and Chongqing in 2006. It shows that about 94.8 percent of the 2,250 homosexual males polled have had sex with other men in the past six months, and 20.7 percent have already married women. The survey targeted what it perceived as the most sexually active group among homosexuals.

With the help of local gay communities, the survey organizers went to urban bars and public bath houses which gay men often visit. Before filling out the anonymous questionnaires, the respondents were asked to confirm that they had had sexual experience with other males. The median age of the respondents is 26.

"In western countries, only a fraction of homosexuals would get into heterosexual marriages. But in China, about 70 to 80 percent of gay men had the intention of marrying a woman sooner or later," Zhang added. The survey showed that about half of the men polled had looked for strangers to have sex in places where male homosexuals usually hang out. About 18.6 percent participated in mass sexual activities and 13.2 percent paid for sex.

Also, about 22.4 percent have experienced symptoms of venereal disease during the past six months, and 24.4 percent have taken HIV/AIDS tests, with 2.2 percent positive. Zhang urged society to show more understanding and tolerance toward homosexuals, and provide better access to HIV/AIDS intervention services for this high-risk group. "In the meantime, the country should continue to promote safe sex," he said.

07 April 2009 – Fridae.com

3
Guangdong police arrests 110 men in 2 raids

by News Editor
Police in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou arrested about 50 men on Mar 30 and 60 men on Apr 3 at a public park. Police in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou arrested about 50 men on Mar 30 and 60 men on Apr 3 when it raided Renmin Gongyuan (People’s Park), a well known gay cruising venue. According to a statement released by Aizhixing Institute, the men were taken to a police station for questioning although there were no specific charges laid. The statement claimed that after being pressured to give a reason for the raids, the police said that they were cracking down on "prostitution."

Chung To, the founder and chairperson of Hong Kong-based Chi Heng Foundation, a HIV/AIDS NGO which operates in China said in an email that five members of its MSM outreach team who were conducting its regular HIV prevention outreach in the park were taken to the police station on Mar 30; and another six volunteers were detained and interrogated on Apr 3. "Taking them to the police station without any reason is unjustified. We are disappointed that this kind of police action still happens in China which hurts our HIV prevention outreach work," To said in the email. No other details of the arrests and how long the men were detained are available.

In the Apr 4 statement, the Aizhixing Institute – a China-based HIV advocacy and awareness group founded by Dr Wan Yan Hai, a prominent AIDS activist, in 1994 – urged the police department to respect the civil rights of homosexuals in Guangzhou.

The statement read in part:
"We believe that the police have clear shown an act of discrimination and harassment towards the gay community during these raids and arrests, which should be condemned. We urge the police to stop such harassment immediately and educate police-officers with basic knowledge of HIV/AIDS prevention policies and civil rights concerning LGBT community to avoid misuse of power and human rights violation in their conduct.

"The police are deemed to have violated The Regulation on the Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS, which was adopted at the 122nd executive meeting of the State Council on Jan 18, 2006 which came into force on Mar 1, 2006."

28 May 2009 – fridae.com

4
Book review: Obsession: Male Same-Sex Relations In China, 1900-1950

by Nigel Collett
Nigel Collett reviews Wenqing Kang’s new book ‘Obsession: Male Same-Sex Relations in China, 1900-1950’ which spans the dissolution of the Qing Empire, the chaos of its successor regimes, the Guomingdang period and the war against Japan.

Obsession: Male Same-Sex Relations in China, 1900-1950
Author: Wenqing Kang
Published by the Hong Kong University Press, 2009
204 pages

In the debate about the views and practices of indigenous homosexualities before the advent of gay liberation and queer studies in the west coloured all of our views of what had gone before, the establishment of the situation that pertained in China in the recent past is clearly crucial. Post-colonial discourse is at last getting down to grasping pre-colonial history, and so is helping to set the framework for struggles to liberate sexual diversity in Asia. It is beginning to provide the knowledge that will help to set us free. To know what existed before the advent of western religions, legal systems and social prejudices muddied Asia’s waters, is crucial to persuading Asian decision makers that in dealing with sexual divergence they are not dealing with western contamination and that alternative local codes, often considerably more liberal than those of today, were natural to their societies. Wenqing Kang, Assistant Professor of History at Cleveland State University in the USA, has now contributed substantially to this growing body of knowledge with his new book Obsession: Male Same-Sex Relations in China, 1900-1950, covering the period spanning the dissolution of the Qing Empire, the chaos of its successor regimes, the Guomingdang period and the war against Japan.

Kang’s book, a slim and smart looking volume of 148 pages of text with full academic apparatus, is the second book to be published in Hong Kong University’s new ‘Queer Asia’ series, which kicked off last year with Helen Leung’s Undercurrents. It is the fruit of his doctoral dissertation at the University of California, so is inevitably written in customary scholarly fashion. Though without a good deal of the jargon that disfigures many works of queer theory (Kang is after all a historian), it is a work that requires concentration and careful reading. This is very much worth that effort as this book covers much new ground, reveals many hitherto untapped sources and propounds some key ideas which will help shape debate for a good many years to come.

After a very useful preface in which Kang describes in depth the traditional terms (and so beliefs and practices) used for same-sex relations in China, the book looks at four groups of writing that illuminate the debates and prejudices that swirled around the subject of homosexuality (tongxing’ai or tongxinglian’ai) during these fifty years. Firstly, Kan examines the introduction of scientific sexology and social Darwinism into China, mostly from the west (particularly from writings by the German Richard von Krafft-Ebing and the Englishmen Havelock Ellis and Edward Carpenter) but also from Japan. He discusses the way these ideas melded with traditional Chinese ways of looking at the subject and the debates that followed their arrival, particularly between two intellectuals, Yang Youtian, who saw homosexuality as a pathology, and Hu Qiuyaun, who promoted Carpenter’s ideas of universal love. Kang also looks here at the investigation of Chinese historical records by Pang Guangdan, who used Havelock Ellis’s work as a template to resolve ancient and modern ideas.

Japanese educated writers of the semi-decadent Creation Society form Kang’s second focus. Their novels challenged social norms and the more conservative (because these were seen to be more scientifically modern) views of the May Fourth writers. In a series of novels by writers like the influential Yu Dafu, and his disciples Huang Shenzhi and Ye Dinghuo, and in the autobiography of Guo Moruo, tales of same-sex love are sympathetically told in a way that both rejects the old view of same-sex relations as mostly physical and the attempts of the new sexologists to classify them medically, concentrating instead on the liberating effect of love. Kang finds the converse to this happy and short literary interlude in his third topic, the socially conservative writings of the vernacular tabloid press, whose reporters and commentators, as do those of the present, fastened on alarming, weird and graphically ugly gossip, court cases and society stories to sell their papers. Kang unearths much new information here, from papers like Shanghai’s Crystal (jingbao) and Tianjin’s Heavenly Wind (tianfengbao). In these, attacks on prominent figures were made in terms recalling the traditional terms used in Qing times to characterise same-sex relations pejoratively as between exploiting higher class men and exploited lower class boys. Columnists used their attacks on same-sex targets for wider purposes, too (recalling here the current use of attacks on the gay community by fundamentalists to win political power for conservative politicians), for instance attacking lesbianism (‘mirror rubbing’ or mojing) to hit at women’s education, which they saw in Confucian terms as rotting the fabric of the nation.

The book’s final section examines changes in the publicly expressed views of the ancient opera practice of liaisons between rich patrons and boy singers taking young female roles (dan), showing how earlier favourable accounts slowly gave ground before more western concepts of homosexuality and a perceived need, one that became ever more pressing as the Japanese war progressed, to strengthen the sinews of the nation by rooting out the weak and effeminate, as well as to show foreigners a stronger face. Kang discusses here the way in which opera super star Mei Lanfang and many others felt, and complied with, the need to ‘clean up’ their act, in the process destroying at least the public acclaim for dan practices which had existed since the Ming dynasty.

Kang concludes that the pressures of modernity, felt in all areas by a China facing up to the 20th Century at a time of grave national emergency, impinged negatively on the way same-sex relationships were seen, so that when the Communists took over in 1949, much of the prudish and puritanical backlash which has hitherto been associated with them had already commenced. This is a persuasive thesis, but it is not one that is fully proved in this book. Kang’s concentration on a rather limited number of primary sources (though it has to be said that he has surveyed the entire secondary field) does not provide him a wide enough evidential base to justify his conclusion.

One fault of this book (and it is one common to many academic monographs of this type) is that the wider context of the discussion is largely absent. One needs a very good knowledge of Chinese history to make sense of this account. For instance, the growing conservative pressures that in the thirties and forties swamped the Weimar like freedoms of the twenties have to be placed against the gradual imposition of political and social repression by the Guomingdang, a party that based many of its ideas on the sorts of eugenic, racial and social theories being deployed at the time elsewhere, for instance by the Nazis. Deliberate nation building campaigns drove out dissidents of any sort as Chiang Kaishek (Jiang Jieshi, who gets only one mention in the entire text) tightened the screws of party control. Communist views of same-sex relations are not elucidated. Similarly, reference to international developments in views of homosexuality, particularly in Europe, where the French and German examples would show many interesting parallels in the period, would have placed this discussion in its historical frame.

And, of course, Kang is looking here at writers and their views, so not at actual practice; discrepancies, perhaps in the dan issue, are possible between the two, but of this we are left largely unaware. Even in the literary world, we are left somewhat at sea; a guide to the overall shape of Chinese literature and journalism at the time would have allowed the reader to give due weight to the subjects chosen. For the general reader, for instance, discussion of where the Creation Society fitted into the Chinese literary scene would have helped assess its significance. ‘Mandarin Duck’ and ‘Butterfly’ writers get a mention but not an explanation, ‘May Fourth’ writers only slightly more. Were there links between the writers and works studied by Kang? Were they aware of each other and what was their interaction? We remain unsure.

A certain mechanicalness affects this book, both in the way it analyses its subject matter and in its rather dry style (and some photos would have been very much appreciated; discussing the most famously beautiful male courtesan in Shanghai, Zhong Xueqin, without showing us his face is provocative!). Human sensibilities seem to have washed out in the detergent of queer theory. This is not just a matter of style. At times, it leads Kang to adopt some less convincing conclusions than he might have reached had he struck out a little more from his beaten queer path. For instance, it is surely relevant to ask how many of the Creation Society writers were themselves gay? Was this a chapter of the ‘homintern’ (a portmanteau of Homosexual International)? One is left to guess. More importantly, the customs surrounding the dan are well described but their emotional and spiritual setting is rather absent. Wu Cuncun, in her look at the same subject in the previous century (Homoerotic Sensibilities in Late Imperial China), is better here, recognising the ‘aesthetic predisposition’ that allowed the rise of the custom out of Ming libertinism and pursuit of the ‘stylishness and prestige’ associated with ‘pretty and bright’ singer boys, and its development into the full blown adoration the literati patrons lavished on their dan in the late Qing, something most closely akin to gay New York’s addiction to opera and its worship of divine divas. Kang is also rather inclined to squeeze Chinese views and practices into western queer theory models (Sedgwick’s analysis of the conceptual incoherence of the internal contradiction of gender separatism and gender transitivity, for instance, which Kang does not convincingly relate to the Chinese sources). He does not always fit the square western peg into the round Chinese hole.

These criticisms aside, for the reader seriously interested in the history of Chinese views of same-sex relations, Kang’s Obsession is a volume that will need to be read and will form an important element in future discussion of this hugely important topic. It is a very welcome addition to the subject and proof that Hong Kong University Press’s ‘Queer Asia’ series is doing what it set out to do, to increase knowledge and to stimulate debate.

Obsession: Male Same-Sex Relations in China, 1900-1950 can be purchased online at HKU Press for HKD395.00 / USD49.50 (Hardback) or HKD195.00 / USD27.95 (Paperback). 10% off for web orders.

10 June 2009 – BBC News

5
State media praises Shanghai gays

by Chris Hogg, BBC News, Beijing

China’s first gay pride festival has been praised in the state media in a significant shift from the previous attitude to such events. The festival was described in the China Daily newspaper as an event of "profound significance" and a "showcase of the country’s social progress". Film screenings, discussions and parties are being held as part of the week long festival in Shanghai. Homosexuality was officially labelled a mental illness in China until 2001. Before Shanghai’s Gay Pride Festival got underway, the organisers were worried it might get shut down. They were warned by a lawyer not to hold a parade, for fear that it might be seen by the authorities as a protest.

‘Open and progressive’
Instead they decided to organise a week of activities in private venues. That low-key approach seems to have worked. The China Daily has carried a large front-page article about the event and about homosexuality in the country. An editorial inside says the festival shows how Shanghai, what it calls "one of the most open and progressive Chinese cities", has displayed acceptance and tolerance by allowing the festival to take place.

In the past the official attitude to homosexuality in China might best be characterised as "don’t condemn, don’t promote". The fulsome praise the paper lavishes on the festival, its organisers and on the city of Shanghai, has not been seen before in the official media. The paper acknowledges that in rural areas especially homosexuality is seen as a taboo or an affliction. It says there is still a lot to be done by the government and the country’s media to promote acceptance and respect of the China’s lesbians and gays.

June 11, 2009 – PinkNews

6
China cancels part of Shanghai Pride

by Jessica Geen
Officials in China have cancelled part of Shanghai Pride. Venue owners were reportedly threatened with "severe consequences" if a planned play and a film screening went ahead. The play was to be The Laramie Project, which deals with the murder of gay teenager Matthew Shepard. The move has caused confusion, as the state-run media described the gay event as having "profound significance" on the same day. Shanghai Pride began last weekend. The official line is that the events were cancelled because the venues did not have the correct licences. However, calls to the authorities on the subject have not been answered.

Hannah Miller, the chief organiser of the festival, told Shanghai Daily: "They are all activities we have hosted before, and we never had problems. This time we just put the events together in a week and gave it the name of a festival." She would not comment on the possibility of more events being cancelled. This is the first time China has officially had a Pride festival. However, there will not be a parade as there is with most other Pride events. Organisers decided it was likely to upset authorities. Homosexuality was illegal in China until 1997. Until 2001, it was officially listed as a mental illness.

June 11, 2009 – Human Rights Watch

7
China: Government Rebuffs UN Human Rights Council

Commitments to Uphold Human Rights Ignored

(Geneva) – China has made a mockery of its commitment to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review process, Human Rights Watch said today. At a June 11 Human Rights Council meeting to adopt the "Outcome Report on China," part of a required review process for all member states, the Chinese government rejected, without exception, 70 recommendations by UN member states related to human rights abuses in China. This includes all recommendations related to freedom of expression and freedom of association, independence of the judiciary, guarantees for the legal profession, protection of human rights defenders, rights of ethnic minorities, reduction of the death penalty, abolition of reeducation-through-labor, prohibition of torture, media freedom, and effective remedies for discrimination.

The Chinese government’s defense of its human rights record during the review process was characterized by statements such as, "There is no censorship in the country," and responses that the Chinese government would "never allow torture to be allowed on ethnic groups," despite ample documentation by civil-society groups and international organizations of such abuses.

"Amid heightening repression of China’s human rights lawyers, a tightening chokehold on freedom of expression, and an ongoing crackdown in Tibet, the Chinese government has tried to whitewash its human rights record in the hope that the UN will just look the other way," said Juliette de Rivero, Geneva advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "Its statements and denials bordered on farce."

In the "Outcome Report," the government agreed to a number of recommendations, but almost all are broad statements of intent that offer neither acknowledgment of existing violations nor the establishment of remedies for such violations. As a member of the Human Rights Council, China has an obligation to "uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights" (UN General Assembly resolution 60/251) and to "fully cooperate with the Council."

Human Rights Watch and other groups made critical oral statements to the Human Rights Council today about China’s human rights record and its dismal response to the council’s recommendations.

"China has betrayed its obligation as an elected member of the council to uphold ‘the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights,’" said de Rivero. "UN member states should not let the review process work this way, or they risk rendering the main reform of the UN’s human rights machinery irrelevant."

June 15, 2009 – The New York Times

8
Gay Festival in China Pushes Official Boundaries

by Andrew Jacobs
Shanghai – It was shortly after the “hot body” contest and just before a painted procession of Chinese opera singers took the stage that the police threatened to shut down China’s first gay pride festival. The authorities had already forced the cancellation of a play, a film screening and a social mixer, so when an irritated plainclothes officer arrived at the Saturday afternoon gala and flashed his badge, organizers feared the worst. After some fraught negotiations, Hannah Miller, an American teacher who helped put together the weeklong festival, agreed to limit the crowds, keep the noise down and, most important, “not let anything happen that might embarrass the government,” she explained after returning from the impromptu sidewalk meeting. “That was a close call,” she said.

Crisis averted, the party continued.
And so it went for Shanghai Pride week, a delicately orchestrated series of private events that revealed how far China’s gay community had come, and how much further it had to go. In the 12 years since homosexuality was decriminalized in China, there has been an unmistakable blossoming of gay life, even if largely underground. Most big cities have gay bars, and social networking sites ease the isolation of those living in China’s rural hinterland. Antigay violence is virtually unheard of.

But official tolerance has its limits. Gay publications and plays are banned, gay Web sites are occasionally blocked and those who try to advocate for greater legal protections for lesbians and gay men sometimes face harassment from the police. For years, movie buffs in Beijing have tried, and failed, to get permission for a gay film festival. This month, public security officials forced Wan Yanhai, a prominent advocate on gay issues, including AIDS, to leave Beijing for a week because they feared he might cause trouble during the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

“Sometimes I feel like we are playing a complicated game with the government,” Mr. Wan said. “No one knows where the line is, but we just keep pushing.” The government, of course, can push back much harder. Last month, China issued a directive requiring that all new computers include filtering software to block pornographic images as well as Web sites with words like gay, lesbian and homosexuality. Mr. Wan and others fear the new rules could effectively ban online information from AIDS organizations or groups that help young people grapple with their sexual orientation.

To further confuse matters, China Daily, the official English-language newspaper, splashed a story about Shanghai Pride on its front page and ran an editorial lauding the event as a welcome sign of China’s social reformation. The progress did not extend to the country’s Chinese press, however, which made no mention of the weeklong festival. During three months of planning, organizers had a rough idea of the limitations: no Chinese-language advertisements, no banners, no parades. Ms. Miller, 30, who helped start Shanghai’s first gay Internet mailing list in 2006, explained why the event’s main organizers were almost entirely not Chinese. “As a foreign passport holder, I think we’re less easily intimidated,” she said.

Despite the careful planning, there were some disappointments. Last week, the authorities showed up at several sites and warned their owners that there would be “serious consequences” if they held scheduled events. A staging of “The Laramie Project,” a play about the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was canceled after the police interrupted a rehearsal to write down the names of the actors. As word of the crackdown spread, performers canceled their appearances and bar owners apologetically told Shanghai Pride to go elsewhere. By Saturday, any lingering anxiety had seemingly evaporated as hundreds of people crammed into a bar to watch lip-synching divas and a silent auction to benefit AIDS orphans. At one table, a woman painted hearts and rainbows on the faces of Westerners and Chinese revelers.

The celebrants were self-assured, unapologetically gay and mostly under 30. There was Gu An, a 19-year-old economics student who shares a dorm room at Shanghai University with his high school sweetheart, and Wang Liang, a 27-year-old furniture designer who might have been the only person to bring his mother. Jin Ying, 49, Mr. Wang’s mother, said she was a bit startled when he came out two years ago, but she was not entirely surprised. “I’m his mother, so I had my suspicions,” she said. “If he’s happy, I’m happy.” But Mr. Wang’s mother was a rare exception. For most gay men and lesbians in China, revealing their sexuality to their families is unimaginable. Parents expect their sons and daughters to produce heirs, an obligation that has become even more intense in a society where single-child families are the standard.

Huang Jiankun’s joyous mood darkened when he recalled the pain his coming out brought to his parents. His father, a retired army officer, wept uncontrollably. His mother made him promise that he would stay away from men. Visits home during the Chinese New Year have become unbearable, especially when relatives pepper him with questions about why he is still unmarried at 30. “I can handle the pressure, but I can’t stand to see the pain on my parents’ faces,” said Mr. Huang, who works in public relations. To assuage his parents, he orchestrated a fake wedding to a lesbian friend, but eventually the truth came out. “The problem is when you lie, it becomes connected to another lie and you can’t keep it up,” he said.

Just then, four couples took the stage, and an ordained minister pronounced them married, if only symbolically. “Being gay is great,” Mr. Huang said, his melancholy banished. On the other side of town, as the young and the self-possessed celebrated their sexual orientation, a few hundred men, most in their 50s and 60s, packed into the Lai Lai, a grimy ballroom in one of Shanghai’s less glamorous neighborhoods. Three nights a week, the men slip away from their wives to dance with one another to the music of a warble-voiced singer.

As he led his clumsy partner across the dance floor, Zhou Aiwen, a 73-year-old retired cadre, spoke of a lifetime of unrequited desire but also of his commitment to Chinese tradition. “My son has a kid now, so I don’t have to worry about anything,” he said with satisfaction. The subject of gay marriage came up, and Mr. Zhou laughed dismissively. “In China we need another 30 years before that can happen,” he said as the clock struck 9 and the dance hall abruptly emptied out.

June 19, 2009 – AP

9
Chinese gays step quietly toward progress

by Tini Tran
Beijing (AP) – The first time director and movie buff Cui Zi’en tried to hold a gay and lesbian film festival in 2001, it was shut down by police before it even opened. When he tried to organize a gay cultural festival in 2005, five dozen police officers swarmed the venue, closing it. But this Wednesday, Cui and other organizers managed to pull off the opening to the five-day Beijing Queer Film Festival with no police and no disruptions — drawing only an appreciative and low-key crowd to the Songzhuang Art District on the city’s outskirts.

For China’s gay community, this week’s film festival and an art exhibition on sexual diversity in Beijing, along with last week’s first gay pride festival in Shanghai, are quiet steps forward after years of slow but unmistakable progress. Cui, a professor at the Beijing Film Academy, said the events mark a significant moment for China’s fledgling gay movement. "The biggest change is that I’m not the only one doing this," he said. "There’s more support from the gay community. Society has become more relaxed and open-minded in its thinking."

But he sounded a note of caution that progress is often accompanied by setbacks, saying organizers would not consider the events a success unless they make it to their closing ceremony Sunday unscathed. "In China, we were the first to put on queer events. In those events, we’ve had interference and that had lasting influences," Cui said. "(Now) we’ve had a successful opening and if we can also achieve a successful closing to the event, it will have another kind of impact," he said.

China has indeed eased its control over some aspects of gay life. In 1997, sodomy was removed from the country’s list of crimes, although homosexuality was not taken off the list of mental disorders until 2001. In recent years, the gay community in China has gone from being virtually invisible to establishing a small foothold in society. In large cities, gay bars have opened and gay and lesbian activist and support groups have sprouted. Internet access to gay groups online has helped ease the isolation for those who live in rural areas.

Even so, the vast majority of the country’s gay and lesbian population continues to face discrimination and stigmatization. Most remain deeply closeted in a still highly conservative society. Gay Web sites are often blocked by the government’s Internet firewalls. Still, community organizers see progress in the fact that gay-themed events that would have been banned outright even a few years ago are now being permitted.

"Ten years ago, this would have been completely impossible," said curator Yang Ziguang, who helped put together the Beijing art show, the first in the country to explore sexual diversity and gender issues. The works by 16 artists include explicit explorations of gay and gender issues. The auditorium for the film festival’s opening movie — a story of a Chinese man who searches for the soul of his dead Swiss lover — was packed with a lively crowd of about 100 people, mostly young and proudly gay.

Others who came were simply curious to know more about gay issues, a segment sought out by organizers who wanted to encourage dialogue between the gay community and the wider public. "I don’t know that much about the lifestyle so I was curious," said Du Jie, 30, an artist who lives in the area. "I really liked the movie. You see on-screen the raw emotions in the relationship between them. It’s a very good opportunity for the public to better understand the gay community."

That’s not to say that everything has gone smoothly. The art show curators ran into problems with local authorities just before opening day last Sunday. "I used to think China was becoming more and more open. On TV, movies and magazines, you hear more and more about these issues," said Gogo, a second curator who goes by one name. "But before the exhibit started, they came and told us ‘You can’t do this.’ That changed my mind a little about how ready China really is."

Furious negotiations followed, and in the end only four works were removed — including one photo showing a man holding a fish over his crotch and a painting depicting two naked men in a sexual act. Organizers decided to leave the empty white frames hanging on the wall as a statement on censorship. Despite the initial problems, the exhibit’s opening drew an estimated 500 people — an enthusiastic public response that left its organizers pleasantly shocked. The organizers said they made a concerted effort to keep the events low profile to ward off unwanted attention. There were no fliers or public advertisements for the events — only announcements circulated on Web sites. And they chose to hold it in the remote Songzhuang Art District, almost an hour’s drive from downtown Beijing.

"If we were to advertise this all over the place, then we would only cause problems for ourselves," said Zhu Rikun, another film festival organizer. The same low-key approach was taken by organizers of the country’s first gay pride festival last week in Shanghai, China’s commercial hub. They carefully planned a week’s worth of movie screenings, art shows and sports events — all held in private venues instead of public spaces, said festival spokesman Kenneth Tan. Despite the attempt to avoid problems, several events still ended up getting delayed or canceled by authorities who claimed organizers didn’t have the correct permits, said Tan.

Still the festival got high praise from the China Daily, the country’s official English-language newspaper, which ran a front-page article lauding organizers for sending a strong signal about "greater acceptance and tolerance." Overall, China has been slowly moving in a direction of more openness toward the gay community, Tan said. "I think the government has given a lot of space for the local gay community to grow and flourish," he said. "I’ve been in China for seven years and the changes I’ve seen in the Shanghai gay scene is tremendous. It’s a metamorphosis."

June 19, 2009 – Examiner.com

10
Gay pride around the world

by Leslie Davis – Atlanta Lesbian Relationship Examiner
Gay Pride is taking places in cities around the world this month. I’ve been browsing the festivities, appreciating the festivities vicariously through friends and strangers. China’s first gay pride festival closed in Shanghai on Sunday after a week marred by authorities’ last-minute cancellation of events. Events for Shanghai Pride were organized at private venues, without a public parade, to avoid attracting unwanted official attention. Evidently their effort to ‘fly beneath the radar’ was less than successful. Shanghai authorities prevented a film screening and a play and police patrolled Saturday’s major events. The festival had to take place discreetly in order to go ahead.

From GlobalPost: Shanghai, like many Chinese cities, has a vast and vibrant gay scene that operates with little interference from Beijing. The government’s hands-off approach is sometimes called the Triple No Policy: no approval, no disapproval, no promotion. It is the Chinese equivalent of "don’t ask don’t tell," an opaque tactic that critics claim leaves both activists and ordinary people caught in an invisible web of rules that dictate when and how you can and, or can’t, be gay. China’s gay community is estimated to be around 30 million, though it is difficult to accurately approximate in a country where homosexuality is heavily stigmatized. China de-criminalized gay sex in 1997, though homosexual behavior was officially viewed as a mental disorder until 2001. Some government-funded medical institutes are still trying to find a "cure" for homosexuality. None of the mainstream media carried any reporting about Shanghai Pride on Sunday.

In Croatia, approximately 300 people gathered last Saturday at the 8th Gay Pride parade in Zagreb, uniting under the slogan "Destroy fascism, support gay activism." The event was marred by verbal clashes between gay and anti-gay groups. A group of around 200 nationalists gathered, shouting insults and carrying slogans such as "Gay parade, shame of our city," "Birth rate is dropping" and "Gays today, pedophiles tomorrow." Police intervened, arresting four people. The annual parades are commonly marred by violence due to the perception that sexual minorities are “sick" and "deviant."

In Israel more than 20,000 gays, lesbians and onlookers turned out for Tel Aviv’s 11th annual Gay Pride Parade on Friday, June 12. A small group of right-wing and religious protesters demonstrated, holding up banners reading: "God hates debauchery." Interior Minister Eli Yishai had tried to convince Prime Minister Netanyahu to cancel the parade. Five gay couples wed Friday in a ceremonial marriage on Tel Aviv beach, at the culmination of the city’s 11th annual Gay Pride Parade. The ceremony, held at sundown, after an all day disco on the beach, began with a serenade by gay pop star Ivri Lider. Three female and two male couples exchanged vows.

Jerusalem will host its own pride parade on June 25th, an event that has previously sparked fierce opposition from Jewish and Muslim clerics and politicians.

Never at the forefront of gay tourism, Switzerland hosted Euro-Pride throughout May, 2009 in Zurich. The parade was held on the final weekend, June 6, 2009. Organizers say 50,000 people attended. Though Zurich may not leap to mind as a primary destination for gay travelers, Switzerland has one of the best developed gay infrastructures in the world, with many places to socialize regardless of how much or how little clothing you choose to wear. The home page of the Zurich police department says that their central preoccupation is “Sicherheit als Grundlage einer toleranten und freien Gesellschaft.” Translation: Safety as the foundation of a tolerant and free society. I wish more local police departments would put this mission on their home page.

Last weekend São Paulo, Brazil hosted the largest gay pride in the world, with over 3 million people in attendance. Dancing and waving rainbow flags, people jammed Sao Paulo’s main boulevards for the 13th annual gay pride parade. Marchers carried signs condemning homophobia and demanding equal rights. Sunday’s carnival-like parade drew gay men, lesbians, cross-dressers and many heterosexual couples with their children for a massive march down skyscraper-lined Avenida Paulista to the beat of loud music blasting from 20 sound trucks. There were two attacks reported. A man was attacked by a group of men on the street in a gay neighborhood and beaten. He suffered brain injuries and remains in a coma. In a separate incident, 21 people were injured when a home-made bomb exploded was detonated in the crowd.

In New York City, Pride celebrations center around five events held during the fourth week of June, from June 20-28, 2009: The Rally, PRIDEfest, The March, the Dance on the Pier, and Rapture on the River. The events all take place in the West Village, very close to the city’s other gay-popular neighborhoods like Chelsea and the East Village. This year is expected to be impressive since it is the 40th anniversary of Stonewall.

There’s have been many festivals held worldwide this far and there are many more to come throughout the rest of the summer. I look forward to enjoying the revelry from my living room.

June 19 – news.xinhuanet.com

11
Shanghai sees more HIV/AIDS cases among men who have sex with men

Beijing (Xinhua) – Incidence of HIV/AIDS cases involving men who have sex with men has risen fivefold in Shanghai, the largest metropolis in eastern China, over recent years, medical experts have said. They made the comments at a science forum designed to promote public awareness of the deadly disease held here Thursday. The city is now carrying out an intervention and education campaign to combat HIV transmission through unsafe sex, they were quoted as saying by Friday’s Shanghai Daily. Among the efforts, health authorities are researching the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among gays, bisexuals and female sex workers.

The Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention began surveying gay males in 2005 to find out more about their sexual behavior and infection experience with HIV/AIDS and syphilis. The incidence of syphilis from 2005 to 2007 remained around 12 to 13 percent, while HIV/AIDS increased every year. The incidence rate was 1.5 percent in 2005, 4.1 percent in 2006 and 7.5 percent in 2007, according to the survey. Data from 2008 are not yet available.

Multiple partners
According to the survey, more than 60 percent of the respondents had more than one male sexual partner. "The increase in HIV/AIDS cases involving male-to-male sex is a challenge for almost all Asian countries," said Kang Laiyi, an AIDS expert at the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention. "Society is becoming more tolerant of gays and bisexuals, and intervention and education for this group should be intensified."

The local CDC has a 1,000-member team working with people such as drug users and sex workers who practice high-risk behavior. "Our team members visit entertainment venues to promote education among gays and sex workers," Kang said. "AIDS is a preventable and controllable disease," Kang said. "Teaching safe sex and promoting the availability of condoms is very effective in combating the disease, according to the experience of other countries like Thailand."

China has reported more than 276,000 HIV/AIDS cases, with more than 45,000 new cases last year. Experts estimated there are actually about 700,000 people infected with HIV in China, including 85,000 AIDS patients. Though only 8.9 percent of the nation’s reported HIV/AIDS victims contracted the virus through sex, the number is growing rapidly. Unsafe sex was the pathway for 45.8 percent of the new cases in 2008. Shanghai has reported 3,947 HIV/AIDS cases, including 936 new victims last year, 34.1 percent more than in the previous year. Unprotected sex was the top transmission pathway in the city, followed by intravenous drug use.

June 28, 2009 – The New York Times

12
New Day for Shanghai Nights

by Aric Chen
“Bring in the boys!” an announcer howled on a recent Saturday afternoon at Cotton’s, a bar in Shanghai.

The occasion was a daylong celebration with drag shows, Chinese opera performances, mock same-sex weddings — and, yes, a “hot body” contest — to help conclude Shanghai’s first Gay Pride Week. And as seven beefcakes, including two from New York and one from Indonesia, strutted onto an outdoor stage, a crowd of hundreds erupted in whoops and hollers before awarding the hottest body title to a strapping, six-foot-tall Shanghainese who went by the name Grant. He was wearing a pink “Beware Pickpockets and Loose Women” T-shirt, until he wasn’t.

“We realized that now is the right time,” Tiffany Lemay, one of the organizers, said of the week’s events. Well almost. Although China decriminalized homosexuality in 1997, visits by the local authorities prompted the cancellation of several gay pride activities. Still, the revelry bore witness (in some cases bared witnesses) to a growing gay scene that, despite the occasional setback, has contributed to Shanghai’s already vibrant night life in ways once hard to imagine.

There’s even an epicenter: a trio of bars in the French Concession neighborhood known as the Gay Triangle. Many visitors start there at the long-running Eddy’s (1877 Huaihai Zhong Road; 86-21-6282-0521; www.eddys-bar.com), a tony concrete-walled bar offering the kind of Chinese exotica (Mao-inspired art, antique door panels) that Westerners and the Shanghainese who congregate with them can’t seem to resist. A stone’s throw away is Shanghai Studio (1950 Huaihai Zhong Road, Unit 4; 86-21-6283-1043; www.shanghai-studio.com), a onetime bomb shelter where a more eclectic, hipper crowd wends its way through a warren of rooms that includes a dance floor and a men’s underwear shop called MANifesto. Completing the triad is the intimate Transit Lounge (141 Tai An Road; 86-21-6283-3051), a favorite among Japanese men who come for the swanky red banquettes, loungey vibe and mojitos.

With their international mix of patrons, these and other spots point to Shanghai’s cosmopolitan makeup. But more locally oriented establishments offer something for everyone, too. Consider Bobos (Bugaoyuan Clubhouse, 307 Shanxi Nan Road; 86-21-6471-2887; www.bobosbar.com). Exceedingly well hidden within a compound of residential high rises (go through the main gate, turn right, look for the glass dome and head downstairs), it’s where you’ll find the somewhat hairier, fuller-bodied set, known as panda bears, loading up on carbs and singing karaoke on a stage flanked by an illuminated rainbow. Or on Fridays through Sundays, there is Lai Lai (235 An Guo Road, second floor; 86-21-6546-1218), an endearingly shabby dance hall where mostly middle-aged men sneak away for a little ballroom action. Arrive early; by 9 p.m., the band goes silent and the floor clears out.

As elsewhere, lesbians have fewer options in Shanghai. But Shanghai Studio hosts a women’s night on the last Saturday of each month, while Tuesdays and Saturdays are marked off for lesbians at, respectively, the bar Frangipani (399 Dagu Road; 86-21-5375-0084; www.frangipanibar.com) and the club Red Station (200 Taikang Road, fourth floor). A number of Web sites, including www.utopia-asia.com and www.shanghaiist.com, offer broad-ranging, up-to-date information on Shanghai’s gay scene.

But on the Saturday night of gay pride, it was the beefcakes who resurfaced at D2 (505 Zhong Shan Nan Road, south alley; 86-21-6152-6543; www.clubd2.cn), a three-level club in the new Cool Docks retail and entertainment complex on the Huangpu River. Amid smoke, laser beams and the thumping of techo-dance music, a flesh-to-flesh mass of mostly Chinese muscle men suggested that now might be a good time to invest in fitness centers in Shanghai; it seemed the whole city had become one giant hot-body contest. Fully clothed, however, was a 30-year-old local named Pete. “Yeah, that’s the trend right now,” he said of the sea of brawn around him.

July 9 – news.cn

13
Beijing’s HIV/AIDS cases up 21% year on year in first five months

Beijing (Xinhua) – Beijing reported 501 new HIV/AIDS cases in the first five months this year, an increase of 90 cases from the same period last year, the capital’s disease control and prevention center said Thursday. Among the new cases, 221 were male homosexuals, who accounted for 44 percent of the total, said Deng Ying, director of the Beijing Disease Control and Prevention Center. Deng said last year, male homosexuals accounted for 29 percent of the city’s new HIV/AIDS cases.

So far, Beijing has reported 6,383 HIV/AIDS cases, including 1,343 locals, 4,722 from other domestic provinces and 247 foreigners. Xie Hui, a Beijing Health Bureau official, said the city would strengthen intervention aimed at HIV transmission via sex among high-risk groups. All 18 districts and counties would establish intervention teams consisting of health staff, police and volunteers, Xie said. The teams would go to hotels and amusement venues to spread AIDS prevention knowledge and distribute condoms at lease once a month.

Xie did not give more details about the plan. China had reported more than registered 290,000 HIV/AIDS cases by May this year, including more than 90,000 AIDS patients. Experts estimate there are about 700,000 people infected with HIV in the country.

August 15, 2009 – Asia Times on-line

14
China’s NGOs fear for the worst

by Verna Yu
Hong Kong – China has in recent weeks resorted to unusually heavy-handed tactics to crack down on non-governmental organizations (NGOs), prominent lawyers and human-rights activists, sparking concern that a new round of persecution has begun on the nation’s nascent civil society. Last month, authorities closed down the Open Constitution Initiative (locally known as Gongmeng), a NGO that provides free legal assistance, accusing it of tax evasion. Two weeks ago, its founder Xu Zhiyong, a respected law professor, was taken away by police and no one has been able to contact him since.

About the same time Xu, 36, was arrested, police raided the Beijing Yirenping Center, another NGO which works to fight
discrimination against Hepatitis B patients and HIV carriers, accusing it of illegal publishing. More than 20 human-rights lawyers have also recently been disbarred, likely due to sensitive cases they had taken on. Targeting NGOs is nothing new for the Chinese government – officials are always wary of groups over which they have no direct control. Unlike almost every other institution in China, from labor unions to schools, NGOs do no represent the ruling Communist Party and often receive funding from the West.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, there were 230,000 registered "social organizations" across the country at the end of 2008. By the government’s definition, a registered "social organization" is the equivalent of a NGO, though some government-funded institutions (such as the All-China Federation of Trade Unions and the All-China Women’s Federation) are also included in this category.

Although Gongmeng has adopted a low profile since its founding in 2003, the kind of work it does might have touched a raw nerve with authorities. It has challenged China’s so-called "black jails", campaigned for the rights of migrant workers and death-row inmates, and helped the parents of babies poisoned during last year’s tainted milk scandal seek legal redress. Just two months before the authorities closed it down, Gongmeng also published a bold and bi-partisan report that questioned government claims that the exiled Dalai Lama incited the Tibet protests last year.

The Chinese government believes it has reason to fear the growth of a robust civil society. For a worrying precedent it need only look at the role an independent labor union (Solidarity) played in the eventual meltdown of the communist regime in Poland.

"Even for NGOs without a clear-cut political agenda, the fact that they’re not at the beck and call of the party already makes the party feel they are a potential threat," said Willy Lam, veteran China watcher and adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "They’re outside the control of the party and … they are still seen as destabilizing agents."

The authorities’ sudden move against Gongmeng, and the arrest of Xu, have sent shivers down the spines of other NGO workers in China. Wan Yanhai, who runs the Beijing Aizhixing Institute, a human-rights group for HIV/AIDS sufferers, said the crackdown on Gongmeng had many NGOs across China worried, with many putting projects on hold.

"We are expecting the police to come any minute," he said. "We’re in someone else’s hands – so you don’t know when you’ll be squashed. The action they took, the way they fined and outlawed [Gongmeng], can be applied to any organization, so the first reaction that many NGOs have is fear."

Lu Jun, head of the Beijing Yirenping Center, said what happened to Gongmeng and his organization had put off other people who wanted to set up non-profit organizations. "We feel a lot of pressure now – there are too many difficulties and risks involved in public welfare work in China."

Nicholas Bequelin, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said he feared the targeting of a prestigious NGO such as Gongmeng, whose board comprises prominent academics and veteran legal professionals. He said it was a signal that the government had little tolerance for activism, even within the legal framework. "The sudden move against rights lawyers and Gongmeng will send a chilling effect across China’s nascent civil society," he said. "Most NGOs are much more fragile than Gongmeng."

Chen Ziming, founder of two independent think-tanks that were shut down by the authorities in the late 1980s, said curbing the rise of civil society was ingrained in the government’s psyche. "Authoritarian regimes have this habit of suppressing the development of civil society," said Chen, who was also accused of being the "black hand" of the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy movement and imprisoned for 13 years. "The crackdowns come in waves. This time they don’t like what they’ve seen so they have to suppress them, targeting their funding and their resources … it’s just a matter of choosing whom."

To make it easier to target the organizations it does not trust, the Chinese government has long refrained from giving NGOs legal status so it can retain control over them, critics say. Chinese NGOs are therefore always in a state of limbo – they can only register as companies and donations and grants can be considered profits.

"It’s a very smart strategy," said Xu Youyu, a retired professor of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "If you do what is good for me, I’ll let you do what you like, but over your head there will always be a Sword of Damocles. So if I want to get rid of you, I can do that easily."

There is speculation that the Chinese government is cracking the whip now because of its anxiety over sensitive anniversaries this year. Recent social unrest across China, including the turmoil in Tibet and the Xinjiang uprising, has also bolstered party conservatives’ power, critics say.

"Our sense is that it [the NGO crackdown] reflects increasing anxieties by the leadership about social unrest, especially in the perspective of the symbolic 60th anniversary of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China [on October 1]," said Bequelin. "[These] have resulted in the empowerment of the security apparatus and the hardliners within the system."

Critics say the latest round of suppression of civil society also shows that China has little to fear from international criticism. China is the largest foreign holder of US debt, and with the US facing one of its worst economic crises ever, even Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and House speaker Nancy Pelosi played down human-rights issues during their visits to China this year. "This might have affected the leadership’s decision to crack the whip because they see that the international opinion isn’t too hard on China," Lam said.

Critics now fear the repression of lawyers and NGOs means ordinary people’s legitimate channels of airing grievances have been closed. This, they say, will only intensify social tensions and further erode people’s faith in the government. "It’s a very unwise thing to do – defending rights through law is conducive towards social stability, and when all the NGOs are suppressed, it will have dreadful consequences," said He Weifang, a law professor at Peking University, who is also a consultant at Gongmeng. "People will either bottle up their grievances or turn into mobsters to defend their rights," he said.

Verna Yu is a Hong Kong-based journalist.

June 29, 2009 – alainsojourner.typepad.com

15
China’s First Gay Pride June 17-24, 2009

Shanghai, China – Here is the news round-up and video of China’s First Gay Pride June 17-24, 2009 which can be seen on this personal blog sent in by a reader to GlobalGayz.com. It was a modest festival with a conference, sports events, a beauty contest for men and a colorful party.

"It happened in Shanghai on June 7-14 in the year of our Rainbow Flag, 2009. Although there was no Parade (to avoid being political) that is usually associated with Pride, Mainland China’s Pride Week successfully raised the Rainbow Flag. However, during the Shanghai Pride week local government officials intervened to cancel several film screenings and the staging of a play.

"In China, gay sex was decriminalized in 1997. And in 2001, homosexuality was deleted from the list of mental disorders.

"The celebration prompted China Daily (June 16) to write, "a good showcase of China’s social progress," an event of "profound significance."

31 August 2009 – fridae

16
Guangzhou gays protest police action at local park

by News Editor
More than 100 gay men in Guangzhou clashed with police last Tuesday in People’s Park. The state-run English-language China Daily newspaper on Saturday that a group of over a 100 gay men confronted the police last Tuesday after the police asked a “large” group of homosexuals to leave Renmin Gongyuan. The police action was the latest in a series of similar incidents of asking gay men to leave the park that is known to be a cruising spot. Some 110 men were arrested in two raids in March and April this year.

"The park is open for everyone," Ah Qiang, a volunteer of a Guangzhou-based gay organisation was quoted as saying. "Why are we not allowed to stay here?" The report quoted an unnamed police officer with the Guangwei subdistrict public security station who said the move to ask homosexuals to leave the park was a preventive measure because gay men are allegedly committing crimes such as robbery and theft in the park.

Ah Qiang, who frequently conducts a safe sex outreach programme with a group of 30 volunteers at the park, refuted the claim saying that the men were in fact the victims and not the perpetrators of crimes. He said the men managed to stand their ground and got the police to leave the park instead.

September 14, 2009 – SF Gate

17
Gay Chinese stand up to police sweep of hangout

by William Foreman, Associated Press Writer
Guangzhou, China (AP) – When the police descend on People’s Park and shoo away the gay men gathered there, the men usually scatter to avoid trouble. But recently, about 50 or so confronted five officers who began a sweep and finally forced a police retreat after a heated but nonviolent standoff.

"I told them they might not like us, but they can’t stop us from coming here," said AIDS activist Xiao Mu, who was handing out condoms and pamphlets about safe sex when the police arrived on Aug. 25. "We have a right to be in the park." Though mostly ignored by state-run media, news of the incident in the southern city of Guangzhou — also known as Canton — spread quickly on the Internet and became a hot topic in gay chat forums nationwide. Some in China’s gay community see it as a sign of a new sense of empowerment and a burgeoning awareness of their rights.

Members of the community have had minor confrontations with the authorities before in other cities. But usually the disputes play out in a low-key way, without much resistance to sweeps, said Lu Jun, founder of a Beijing-based group that fights discrimination against people with hepatitis B. "I’ve never heard of something like this happening anywhere else," Lu said about the Guangzhou incident. "I think what happened marks great progress for homosexuals."

Gay activist Dao Dao in Shanghai also applauded those in Guangzhou for standing up for their rights. But he said he doubted it was the right long-term strategy. He favors striving for wider acceptance by being model citizens, rather than being outspoken and confrontational. "We don’t do any harm to the society. I think that’s the best way to show all the people that we are good people and nothing different," said Dao Dao, who works in finance and also helps organize gay parties, sporting events and other activities.

Gay rights have come a long way since the years just after the 1949 communist revolution when homosexuality was considered a disease from the decadent West and feudal societies, and gay people were persecuted. China waited until 1997 to decriminalize sodomy. Homosexuality was finally removed from the official list of mental disorders in 2001. But still, there are no widely accepted estimates of the number of gay people in China. This year has already been an eventful one for gay rights. In June, the first gay pride festival was held in Shanghai, the nation’s commercial capital. Later in the month, the five-day Beijing Queer Film Festival was held — an event that police blocked in 2001 and 2005.

But as those cities showed signs of being more tolerant, Guangzhou authorities were starting to crack down in People’s Park — a shady oasis of trees and gazebos in the middle of the muggy, traffic-congested city. The park is popular with youngsters who play badminton or retirees practicing their ballroom-dancing moves to stereos blasting out tunes like "Sukiyaki," the Japanese ballad that became a hit in the U.S. in the 1960s. For years, the park has also been a favorite hangout for gay men, especially among the young or working-class who can’t afford the bars and restaurants around town that cater to the community. The men — many dressed in tank tops and tight jeans — stroll around the park or sit together on a long line of stone benches. Nearby is a public restroom, where some men have sex — a source of much of the friction with the police.

On Aug, 25, the police moved in. "They told us, ‘You just leave and don’t come back. This is People’s Park, not Homosexual Park,’" said Xiao, the AIDS activist, who is a short and thin and wears large black-framed glasses. "That made me extremely mad. He was saying gays aren’t human." Xiao said several men quietly walked away, but he stood his ground and people gathered around as he argued with police. Some who left wandered back after a few minutes, and Xiao estimated the crowd swelled to about 100 people, including several heterosexual passers-by who supported him.

The police declined to be interviewed. An officer at the front desk of the neighborhood’s main police station grew agitated when asked about the incident, and with a loud voice he ordered an Associated Press reporter to leave the station. A park policeman, who declined to give his name because he’s not authorized to speak to the media, denied the police were unfair or discriminating against gays. "The problem is that they do things in the public bathroom. Some of them will grope each other on the park benches," the policeman said. "People see them doing these things and it makes them feel uncomfortable. Then they call the police."

The officer added that those who have been asked to leave the park or have been taken to the station for questioning are repeat offenders who constantly cause trouble. But gay activist Ah Qiang disagrees with the police. He said in March police started rounding up random groups of men in the park. They were marched to the police station where they would be forced to write a statement about their activities before being released without being charged, he said. Police often called the men "gay lao" or "ji lao" — a pejorative term in the local Cantonese dialect, he said.

However, the activist acknowledged that some people do misbehave in public. But he added, "The police should deal with individual cases. They shouldn’t punish a whole group of people." There’s a deep division within the gay community about who is to blame. Shi Heng, a gay hotel worker who hangs out at the park, found himself in the middle of a fierce debate with younger men during a recent afternoon when he insisted that the cause of the trouble is the men who have sex in the restrooms.

"People are being too crude. We simply can’t behave like this in a public place," said the 47-year-old man. But another man in his 20s disagreed with Shi and said young men like him had few options. "We can’t afford to rent a room, and many of us live with our parents," said the man, who declined to be named because he feared it would cause trouble at home and work. "Where are we supposed to have sex?"

October 19, 2009 – IGLHRC

18
Stop Police Discrimination Against Gay Men in Guangzhou
Rights violated include the freedom of assembly, association and freedom from arbitrary detention.

The Issue
On March 30 and April 3, 2009, in Renmin Gongyuan People’s Park, police officers from the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau detained and questioned 50 and 60 men, respectively, who authorities believed to be engaging in sexual activities, as well as outreach workers from the Chi Heng Foundation who were providing safe sex education as part of an HIV prevention program. No formal charges were filed. Then, on August 25, 2009, the police attempted to forcibly eject 100 men from the park as well as outreach workers. The men protested this discriminatory treatment and ultimately convinced the police to leave the park. The police justified this most recent attempt to arrest and exclude men from the park by claiming to be responding to allegations by park visitors that some men, believed to be gay, were "harassing" people and committing minor property crimes, though the targeted men themselves were also being harassed and robbed.

Background
China decriminalized consensual same-sex acts in 1997 and removed homosexuality from its official list of mental disorders in 2001. Despite the existence of an estimated 100,000 or more HIV positive MSM in China, biased and misinformed policing still effectively criminalizes homosexuality and hampers effective AIDS-related activism and outreach. The Guangzhou police are violating both Chinese and international law by arresting men suspected of being gay and the HIV outreach workers, and preventing them from accessing Renmin Gongyuan People’s Park.

Under Chinese Law, Article 35 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China assures all citizens the right to enjoy freedom of speech, of assembly, of association, and of demonstration. The Regulation on the Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS (Decree 457) also protects the legal rights of people living with HIV, including the right to education. It directs NGOs "to participate in AIDS educational communication," and instructs local governments to "encourage and support relevant organizations and individuals to carry out educational communication, counseling and supervision on AIDS prevention and treatment to the HIV infection vulnerable groups…" The Ministry of Health specifically includes men who have sex with men among the list of vulnerable groups.

Under international law, the right to freedom of association and assembly is guaranteed under Articles 21 and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 5 of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, and Article 5 of the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, to all of which China is a party. The International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights (2006) also includes men who have sex with men among groups who are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS and states that "[p]ublic health and an effective response to HIV are undermined by obstructing interaction and dialogue with and among such groups."

The Yogyakarta Principles on the application of international human rights law in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity, outline states’ obligations to refrain from impeding "the exercise of the rights to peaceful assembly and association on grounds relating to sexual orientation or gender identity" and to "provide training and awareness-raising programmes to law enforcement authorities and other relevant officials to enable them to provide such protection."

The raids and patterns of harassment in Guangzhou discriminate against individuals by targeting them on the basis of their perceived sexual orientation. They also threaten access to the limited space that the gay and bisexual men of Guangzhou can access. Social spaces, such as public parks, are sites in which lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people build community and promote HIV education and prevention. These venues are particularly important since private space is less accessible to many Chinese gay men and lesbians, many of whom live with family and do not have the financial resources to obtain living spaces of their own.

21 October 2009 – Fridae

19
Out of China: Zhou Dan

by Nigel Collett
Zhou Dan, a lawyer and who helped start a hotline for LGBTs in his native Shanghai in 2003, tells Fridae’s Hong Kong correspondent Nigel Collett about becoming aware of his own sexual orientation in a time where China regarded homosexuality as an ‘illness’ or ‘disorder’ to being a leading voice for gay rights in China.

Any Fridae.com reader who attended the 1st International Conference of Asia Queer Studies, ‘Sexualities, Genders and Rights in Asia’, held in the Ambassador Hotel in Bangkok in July 2005, will remember a feisty and charming delegate from Shanghai named Zhou Dan, a member of a very select band, an openly gay lawyer and fighter for LGBT rights in China. Zhou was in Hong Kong in the last ten days of September this year to participate in the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s programme on civil society organisations in China, as well as to visit human rights organisations working here. He took time out of his schedule to meet me in the Foreign Correspondents Club to talk to me about his life and work.

Zhou, 35, has already had a remarkable career compressed into what is still a young life (‘Revolutionaries are always young’ is a favourite saying of his). Born in the dying days of the Cultural Revolution in 1974, he started school in 1980 at the beginning of a decade which brought renewal to China and kicked off the economic development which has so astonished the world. He studied law at university in Shanghai and graduated to practise in the city. All this time he had become increasingly aware of his own sexual orientation and faced the hard fact that in China this was still regarded as an ‘illness’ or ‘disorder.’

Back in the 90s, before the internet established itself, finding knowledge about homosexuality was difficult; only unhelpful or unsympathetic medical texts were available in the university library. It was not until he chanced to be riding his bicycle past Shanghai’s Little Garden (a well known gay meeting place, though he didn’t know it at the time) that he met other men like himself and his life changed. In those days, unless you knew someone, even finding a place where there were other gay men was difficult. After writing with his real name about being gay on Chinese websites for several years, he came out publicly in a local newspaper about his gay identity in November 2003.

“The internet has changed everything,” Zhou told me, “especially since the end of the 90s. Many are still too frightened to go to bars and the virtual world is a safer one. I met my partner on the net ten years ago,” he adds. Since then, things have become easier in China. In 1997, the National Peoples’ Congress abolished the law penalising ‘hooliganism,’ a statute under which many gay men had been prosecuted. The Ministry of Health removed homosexuality from its diagnostic list of mental illnesses in 2001.

Now, as long as you are comfortable with your sexuality, you are reckoned to be mentally healthy. If you are not, though, your condition will still be treated as a mental disorder, though this of course begs the question as to which mental disorder, and Chinese doctors are none the wiser than anyone of us here so usually end up treating these ‘patients’ for depression. China operates a ‘Three Nos’ policy: ‘no prohibition, no support and no promotion,’ a half way house reminiscent of the Thatcher years in Britain, but this at least leaves space for academics and activists to push the boundaries of tolerance. Since 2005, Fudan University in Shanghai has offered a gay and lesbian studies programme open to undergraduates, which now has about 100 students. The university’s medical school has also offered a graduate course on medicine and homosexuality (which is mostly about the latter) since 2003.

In 2006, the university held a conference on law and social policy related to homosexuality which attracted some of the country’s top legal minds. “If you want to change legislation,” Zhou says, “you have to educate straight lawyers and scholars, and not just in matters of fact but emotionally and sentimentally.” In 2005, Zhou decided to focus on promoting LGBT rights alongside his legal work. “It’s hard to fight for individual rights in a society which is based on the traditional patriarchal and authoritarian system like China’s,” he told me.

“It’s the same for the rights of migrant workers and women as for gay men. How to speak in a liberal way about any issue remains problematic. The country is still blind to the subject of gay rights, so you have to open its eyes using the ideas that current across the nation, for instance ‘creating social harmony,’ ‘fighting injustice’ or ‘the three represents.’” Advocacy thus takes forms unknown elsewhere. For instance, Zhou sees it as his task to educate and nurture ‘jurisprudential imagination’ in the Chinese legal world. “We can do this in two ways,” he thinks, “firstly by using literary imagination, by which I mean the use of ancient texts and modern literature, even books like Pai Hsien-yung’s classic Taiwanese novel Niezi [known in the English reading world as Crystal Boys]. Secondly, by using sociological imagination, in effect the eliciting of compassion and sympathy using evidence based on science and facts. We research anywhere we can to justify the morality of gay rights, even in the western world,” he explains.

Zhou has written a work of his own as part of this process of reaching out to educate the straight world. In May this year he published in Shanghai his Pleasure and Discipline; Jurisprudential Imagination of Same-sex Desire in Chinese Modernity (?????), which, despite the length of its title, he says is selling well already.

Zhou takes this educative message out into the world. Apart from Bangkok, he’s travelled to Canada and the USA, and is in touch by net with counterparts in Taiwan. Now in Hong Kong, on Sep 23 Zhou spoke to an audience gathered by the Faculty of Law’s Centre for Comparative and Public Law at the University of Hong Kong on the subject of the emerging gay rights activism in mainland China, where he explained many of his ideas to a lively audience of Hong Kong’s legal academics, students and activists.

In China, he said, homophobia has been replaced with what he describes as ‘homo-blindness,’ for despite the gradual growth of freedoms, a few additions to literary and cinema canons, some acceptance of public demonstrations of affection or gay fashion on the streets and the growth in the number of gay bars and saunas in the major cities, most gay life remains invisible in most of China. Very few gay men have had the courage to come out in public, and even fewer publicly recognised figures. Most continue to lead double lives, to marry and produce the expected heir, despite all the psychological and family problems, the divorces and suicides, to which this leads.

Zhou has been tremendously encouraged by changes in the rest of the world, and thinks the acceptance by Vancouver’s Chinese community of Canada’s same-sex marriage law is a pointer to the way Chinese pragmatism is capable of grappling with change. China’s bold decision to authorise and fund local NGOs to carry out HIV education and prevention outreach programmes across the nation is another. He is, therefore, cautiously optimistic about the future, but has no illusions about the length of time that will be needed, for instance, to bring in legislation against discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.

“All this must be approached one step at a time,” he is sure, “and it’s not just a river across which you’re feeling the stones, but a whole ocean.” The tongzhi community’s own long march has a very long way still to go.

Zhou Dan’s blog
Interview with Zhou Dan

22 October 2009. – Sexually Transmitted Infections

20
HIV prevalence and related risk factors among male sex workers in Shenzhen, China

Abstract
Background: HIV transmission among men who have sex with men has become a major concern recently in China. However, little is known about HIV transmission among male sex workers (MSWs). This study aimed to investigate HIV infection prevalence and risk factors among MSWs in Shenzhen, China.

Materials and Methods: Following formative research, a cross-sectional study was conducted using time-location sampling (TLS) among MSWs in Shenzhen, from April to July, 2008. Behavioral and serologic data on HIV and syphilis were collected. The risk factors for HIV infection were analyzed using a logistic regression model.

Results: In total, 394 male sex workers were recruited for the survey. The prevalence of HIV and syphilis among these workers was 5.3% and 14.3%, respectively. Only a quarter of the MSWs self-identified as homosexual. More than 70% had sex with both men and women. HIV-related knowledge levels were high regardless of HIV sero-status. Consistent condom use was low (37.1%) and varied by type of sexual partner. Factors including more non-commercial male partners, working in small home-based family clubs, being drunk prior to sexual intercourse, having a history of HIV tests, syphilis infection and short period of residence in Shenzhen were associated with an increased risk of HIV infection.

Conclusions: High-risk sexual practices were common among male sex workers regardless of their high level of HIV awareness. The working venues were associated with HIV infection and a recent test for HIV was a potential predictor for HIV infection. The TLS method was found to be an appropriate way of recruiting male sex workers for this study, especially those without fixed working places.

26 October 2009 – Fridae

21
Gay rights groups call on Guangzhou police to respect rights of gays

by International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and the Beijing Aizhixing Institute have put out an alert asking the public to call on the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau to stop harassing and discriminating against gay men after three reported incidents this year.

Action
Join the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and the Beijing Aizhixing Institute – an organization that provides HIV prevention, care and support for marginalized populations in China – in calling on the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau to respect the human rights of all park visitors, including gay men and human rights defenders providing HIV education, by allowing access to the park free from discrimination and harassment from the police and others, and by providing training to law enforcement authorities to ensure that people are not targeted on the basis of sexual orientation.

Please send your letters to:

Mr. Wu Sha
Head, Guangzhou Public Security Bureau
200 Guangzhou Qiyi (Uprising) Road
Guangzhou, China
email

Please also copy:
IGLHRC

November 30, 2009 – PinkNews

22
Chinese city opens gay bar to tackle HIV

by Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk
The Chinese city government of Dali has opened a state-funded gay bar to tackle HIV infections. The city, in the southwestern Yunnan province, is one of the ten Chinese cities most affected by HIV and sex between men is thought to account for one third of transmissions. In an interview with the Beijing News, founder Zhang Jianbo said the bar would be a meeting place for men who live in rural villages. He added it would hand out free condoms and sex education. It will be staffed by volunteers.

Jiang Anmin, deputy director of health in Dali, told the paper: "Each year, the Dali city government spends 20,000 yuan on treatment drugs for AIDS. So if our bar succeeds in reducing transmission, our 120,000 yuan will be well-spent." The newspaper reported that it had received some letters from readers complaining that the state-funded bar was a waste of money and would "promote" homosexuality. However, one gay outreach group told Reuters that publicity around the opening of the bar could have an adverse effect if people were too frightened to enter it.

November 30, 2009 – AFP

23
China warns gay transmission of AIDS gaining pace

Beijing (AFP) – China warned in a notice for Tuesday’s World AIDS Day that homosexual transmission of the disease was gaining pace and called for health authorities nationwide to step up prevention work. The statement by the health ministry came a day after President Hu Jintao called on the nation’s people not to discriminate against those with HIV in comments widely broadcast by the nation’s government-controlled media.

"Sexual contact continues to be the main channel of transmission with the speed of homosexual transmission clearly increasing," the health ministry said. "This is a new situation that we need to pay attention to."

China has not been hit as hard by HIV/AIDS as many other nations. The disease first gained hold in China among illegal drug users, ethnic minorities, sex workers, and through unsanitary blood transfusions. But in recent years, transmission avenues have expanded out from those traditionally high-risk groups, the ministry said.

"The AIDS epidemic has already spread from high-risk groups to ordinary people, dangerous elements of AIDS transmission are present everywhere," it said. "AIDS is affecting more and more people and the transmission is becoming more diverse."

The ministry urged stepped-up education efforts on safe sex and condom use. By the end of October 2009, China had 319,877 registered cases of HIV/AIDS, including 48,000 new cases this year, while nearly 50,000 people have died in China to AIDS, the ministry said. The ministry has estimated that up to 740,000 people in China live with HIV, many of whom experience high levels of stigma and discrimination, a situation President Hu addressed at an AIDS awareness activity in Beijing Monday. You "must care more and better for AIDS patients and people living with HIV, and in particular guide society into not discriminating against them," the president told AIDS prevention volunteers.

"We welcome the positive attitude of Chinese leaders on the fight against AIDS," prominent AIDS activist Wan Yanhai and director of the AIDS Action Project told AFP. "But we would like to see the government open up to all non-government organisations… as our activities are still being restricted, we are unable to raise funds from inside China and we are still subject to (police) surveillance."

December 3, 2009 – China Daily

24
More liberal approach needed for gay bars

by Zhang Tianwei (China Daily)
The gay bar funded by the Dali health bureau has become a controversial topic in the press, due to reporting by CCTV and Internet media. However, probably nobody in the debate had expected it would close on the eve of the World AIDS Day. According to news reports, the bureau invested in the bar to build an open, easy and safe entertainment venue. This was intended to encourage gay men to come out of hiding and help the government to understand them better and to provide better services. The government has not backed the bar with any ulterior motives.

However, I believe the government should have adopted a laisser faire approach to gay bars. First, the government might consider allowing the operation of gay bars and other similar venues in a "grey" situation. The government should encourage the operators and consumers to be cooperative with the assistance from the government or NGOs. This will acknowledge the existence of gay groups while helping reduce the spread of AIDS as much as possible.

Second, if the government had adopted a laisser faire approach to gay bars, those underground or semi-underground venues would be open to the government and NGOs that provide services and guidance. As such, it would not be necessary for the government to build a gay bar. The risks and disadvantages of the government intervention are shown in the controversy surrounding the gay bar and its subsequent closure.

It seems the Dali government was not well-prepared for the ethical debate that might arise from the government investment in the gay bar. Just because the government has finally faced the issue doesn’t mean there is a public consensus on it. The government’s move to back a gay bar will certainly be challenged by differing opinions. However, if the government had adopted a relaxed approach, it might have averted the moral risks.

Besides, too much public exposure and controversy have been the main reasons why the gay bar was closed, as stakeholders face too much pressure. Even if the gay bar opened as scheduled, I would doubt it if gay men would feel safe to come.

December 1, 2009 – www.chinaview.cn

25
Amid grim AIDS situation, China’s gay groups set to flourish

by Xinhua Writers Bai Xu, Wang Ying
Shebyabg – It was an ordinary apartment in downtown Shenyang with several computers and bookshelves in three bedrooms. In the frigidity of the capital city of northeast China’s Liaoning Province, boys dropped in in twos and threes, chatting with the staff in the room or surfing on the internet to kill time. But the rainbow flags hanging on the wall hinted that the room was not ordinary at all, as such flags were widely used to symbolize gay and lesbian community pride.

"Our ‘Support of Love’ consulting center was aimed to provide service to the MSM group," said 24-year-old Xiao Shun (not his real name). MSM means men who have sex with men.

A Gay’s Story
Xiao Shun didn’t realize he was gay until six years ago after a bitter experience with a girlfriend, which he didn’t want to recall much. "It hurt my feeling greatly," he said. Then a male friend approached him, and Xiao Shun found that he gradually developed love to someone of the same gender as his own. At first, Xiao Shun was depressed and embarrassed. He tried to date girls, only to find himself uninterested at all.

"I wanted to know more about gays, but I could just hide in the corner of an internet cafe to surf online." He soon joined some gay groups and became member of a non-government organization (NGO) of gays. "I began to know that I’m not alone," he said. The boy became a member of the ‘support of love’ consulting center in May after graduating from college with a bachelor degree on media.

One of Xiao Shun’s job in the center was to teach "money boys" (male who have sex with men to earn money) about safe sex in nightclubs. The Ministry of Health estimated that 740,000 people were living with HIV in China at the end of 2009. Among the 48,000 new infections in 2009, 32 percent, or nearly one-third, were through sexual transmission between MSMs, said the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

In 2005, the proportion of man-to-man sexual transmission in new HIV infections that year was 12.1 percent. The HIV infection rate among gays was climbing steadily in China, from 2.5 percent (out of 480 interviewees) in 1998, to 4.2 percent (of 800 interviewees) in 2000, to the current 5.9 percent. Xiao Shun felt the threat well.

On the one hand, anal sex is highly risky as the walls of anus and rectum are thin and richly supplied with blood vessels which can be easily injured during anal intercourse. On the other hand, "relationship between men is not stable in China," he said. "If two men are together for three months, that is pretty long."

Many gay men not only have sex with men. Under social pressure in China, where filial piety is always featured by leaving off springs, more than 90 percent of the gays would ultimately get married with a woman, according to Liu Dalin, famous sociologist and specialist in sexology. Male prostitution makes the problem even more serious.

"In nightclubs, about 30 percent to 50 percent of the money boys are not gay at all, which means that if they got infected with HIV, they could infect their girlfriends," he said, adding that in almost all the nightclubs they could find HIV positive cases.

December 21, 2009 – Reuters

26
China city’s gay bar opens after media storm

Beijing (Reuters Life!) – A gay bar partially funded by the government of a Chinese city heavily affected by AIDS has finally opened after a delay caused by intense media interest which the owners felt may scared off potential patrons. Initially scheduled to open on World AIDS Day on December 1, the bar in the southwestern city of Dali had to postpone opening after details were published in the Chinese media.

"The plan was delayed because gay men were worried about potential media exposure and discrimination," the Beijing Youth Daily quoted founder Zhang Jianbo as saying. The newspaper said the not-for-profit venue will sell soft drinks and beer at prices cheaper than other local bars, to attract gay men from poorer rural communities. Details of the bar’s rescheduled opening was only spread by word of mouth between members of the gay community.

"We didn’t want any publicity on the night. We didn’t even publicize the opening on websites for homosexuals," said Zhang. Dali, in Yunnan province, is one of the 10 cities in China most affected by AIDS. The city’s health department is helping fund the venture to reach out to China’s increasingly confident gay community, along with two non-governmental organizations. The bar will primarily serve as a public gathering place for gay men and will also provide emotional and medical support for them free of charge, the report added. On the opening night, volunteers staged a play on AIDS prevention and distributed free condoms, it said.

Sexual transmission is now the major cause of HIV infection, accounting for more than 70 percent of all new cases, according to Minister of Health Chen Zhu. For decades China’s gay community has lived in fear of discrimination and prejudice, with gay venues regularly targeted by police raids and closures. Gay men often married women to avoid family and society pressures, only daring to meet in secret gatherings.

While large cities like Beijing and Shanghai now have thriving gay scenes, more conservative attitudes still prevail in China’s vast rural hinterland.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom, editing by Miral Fahmy)

2009 December 28 10:14 – China Daily

27
Year of Gay China

by Christine Laskowski (China Daily)
As the year 2009 comes to a close, it does so having been a monumental year for China’s LGBT community. Beijing and numerous cities across China experienced the successful completion of 12 anniversaries and public events that expose LGBT culture and related issues like never before. China’s LGBT community, which is an acronym that refers to lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people, has adapted the terms tongzhi to refer to gays, lala for lesbians, ku’er for queer – an umbrella term for those who do not identify as heterosexual with regard to sexuality, sexual anatomy or gender identity.

The community is young. Most are in their 20s and 30s, are educated, working professionals with experience abroad who are now highly active and public organizers, authors, editors, designers, film directors, curators, activists and artists. One catalyst was the Olympic Games in 2008, a landmark event that many in the LGBT community have interpreted as a "coming out" event. LGBT websites have allowed for communities to build, to advertise events, and to allow contact and information to be exchanged between LGBT members from big cities and small towns in China with those from around the world.

As one of the organizers of China’s first gay pride events and editor for shanghaiist.com, Kenneth Tan, puts it: "Gay people, young and old, are now coming out en masse. These people are all what I call ‘first generation queers’."

Year of Gay China
Policies, too, have been slowly changing. At a national level, 1997 saw the removal of sodomy from the country’s list of crimes; homosexuality was removed from the list of mental disorders in 2001; and since 2003 prominent sexologist and activist, Li Yinhe, has been proposing same-sex marriage legislation at the annual Two Sessions.

In China, where LGBT-themed films are prohibited and gay-themed exhibitions, novels and magazines are taboo, the success of many of these events have been years in the making. Organizers have gotten creative: they arrange other activities; they hold their film festivals and art exhibitions just outside major cities; they keep publicity to a minimum.

So with all this happening, what does the future hold for China’s LGBT community? Li Yinhe has revealed plans to propose another same-sex marriage bill in 2010. And in a nation without ratings, perhaps introducing them to TV shows and films, will help lift the ban on gay and lesbian characters on screen. Perhaps China will witness the coming-out of its first celebrity.

Yet among all involved to promote awareness and to end discrimination, there seems to be a consensus: they have come a long way, but there is still a long way to go.

Feb 14: Qianmen Valentine’s Day Photo Shoot, Beijing
Organizers within the LGBT community wanted media attention for their cause, and that is exactly what they got, starting 2009 off with one gay and one lesbian couple dressed in wedding attire posing for photos among the crowd at Qianmen Pedestrian Street, located south of Tian’anmen Square. Valentine’s Day events for LGBT groups have become part of an annual campaign since 2007.

The day is significant for couples as it is closer to March when the annual National People’s Congress Standing Committee meeting is held where prominent sexologist and activist Li Yinhe proposed her landmark same-sex marriage bill the year before. (Li has proposed a bill three times: 2003, 2005, and 2006).

"We wanted to spark public debate and awareness," said Jiang Hui of Aibai, who came up with the idea. "It gives people a chance to visualize it. So it’s encouragement for LGBT people because they can stand out to express themselves." The couples who participated were not, in fact, real couples, although they all identify as gay and lesbian. Xu Bin, who helped organize the first Lala Camp held in Zhuhai in 2007, explained that the volunteers were in relationships with partners that were reluctant to participate, but "were out and willing to promote this cause."

Gay China News & Reports 2009

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