Gay China News & Reports 2008

What’s next for parents? Increasingly in China, parents of gay children are not only accepting their sexuality but trying to help other families in the same situation support each other. Every Chinese queer teen must dread the thought of coming out to the parents. A face off with the demon force of 2,000 years of Confucian traditions is no joke. While China is blessed with a largely secular nation – there is little right wing Christian or Islamic homophobia for instance – mainland parents dream of their offspring getting hitched and carrying on the family name with a child of their own. A gay son or daughter is an unwelcome spanner in the works that can bring on anything from tears to the outright severance of family ties. No wonder so many lesbians and gays keep their sexuality under wraps and even get married to fulfill familial obligations – the ultimate sacrifice.

So when 18-year-old Zheng Yuantao in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou told his mother he liked boys, he must have been delighted by her reaction. Wu Youjian didn’t cry, introduce him to hot women or disown him. Instead she taught herself how to use a computer, got herself a Sina blog, and put their story online in the hope she could help other gay and lesbian children come out to their parents. In just six months her site had clocked up 100,000 hits and she had earned the affection of hundreds of gays and lesbians who now call her Auntie Wu.

Wu, a writer and editor by profession and a self-confessed liberal, said she found it easy to deal with her son’s sexuality because by the time, "Yuantao came out to me… I had read a lot of gay-themed books and movies (by his recommendation). Besides he had also been a good boy in school and in the family; he never made us worried." And therein lies the key, she says. If you want to come out to your parents do some groundwork first and feed your parents information on what being gay is all about before coming out to them. "Always make sure your parents have some understanding and acceptance of homosexuality before coming out to them," she advises.

"Coming out to younger, trustworthy members of the family first might also help." It also helps if you work hard in school and, in all ways, are an exemplary son or daughter. "Just make sure you’re well behaved [and a good student]," she says. This "can hopefully give you more credit when you try to convince your parents that you are gay and it’s fine." But, Wu adds, not all gay children should feel they have to tell their family their sexuality. "If the parent-child relationship hasn’t been close then I don’t think they should tell."

Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/filmNews/idUSN0963373120080110

January 9, 2008

2
Filmmaker exposes gay life, pollution in China

by Janine Stein
Singapore (Hollywood Reporter) – Documentary maker Ruby Yang is laying bare some of China’s thorniest issues — HIV/AIDS, tobacco and the ravages of smoking, homosexuality and the environment. She’s doing much of it with the full support of state organizations in China, where censorship remains fierce and authorities are noted more for clamping down on sensitive domestic issues than for exposing them to the world. Yang’s 39-minute Academy Award-winning film, "The Blood of Yingzhou" (2006), funded by the Starr Foundation, tracks a year in the life of AIDS orphans in China’s Anhui Province. She followed that up in November with three public service advertisements promoting condom use, using celebrities like Jackie Chan. The shorts, produced with the support of the Ministry of Health, were the first condom advertisements to air on state-owned broadcaster China Central Television’s national network, CCTV 1.

Next up is a documentary on gay life and the pressures created by China’s one-child policy.

"There’s a lot of pressure to produce an heir," Yang says. "Many gay men are married and live a double life. They lie to their parents, lie to their wives."

The half-hour film, provisionally called "Double Life," is expected to be completed by May, but Yang is not counting on a public release in China. Instead, she hopes the film will get exposure on the international festival circuit. Yang also is working with China’s Center for Disease Control on ways to promote a smoke-free 2008 Olympics in a country with 350 million smokers. "That’s bigger than the population of the U.S.," Yang says, adding that the government realizes the health costs. "About 50,000 people die of AIDS a year in China, but 1 million die of tobacco-related diseases," she says. Yang’s other pet project is two- to three-minute films for the Internet profiling environmental "heroes." Raising money for the environmental series has been tough.

"A lot of multinationals are willing to give support for AIDS because it’s really hot, but the environment and pollution is very sensitive," she says. "Usually polluters are big business, so it comes down to the government. Al Gore is helping in the West, but in China it’s a different case. Foundations are more into global warming than pollution. The carbon economy is really big, but China’s basic problem is water pollution," she says.

Yang’s professional life is not all about causes with deadly consequences. Also on her slate is a 60-minute documentary for PBS in the U.S. on San Francisco’s Chinatown. The film, "A Moment in Time," is a "tribute to the older folks and the movies they love," Yang says. Born in Hong Kong, the filmmaker lived in San Francisco for 25 years before moving to Beijing in 2003 with her husband, who used to run a movie theater in Chinatown. "It’s very uplifting, very different from the sad movies," she says, adding, "I need the balance."

asianoffbeat.com
http://www.asianoffbeat.com/default.asp?Display=1399

January 17, 2008

2a
Chinese Parents of Gay Children Team Up in Support of Each Other

Every Chinese queer teen must dread the thought of coming out to the parents. A face off with the demon force of 2,000 years of Confucian traditions is no joke. While China is blessed with a largely secular nation – there is little right wing Christian or Islamic homophobia for instance – mainland parents dream of their offspring getting hitched and carrying on the family name with a child of their own. A gay son or daughter is an unwelcome spanner in the works that can bring on anything from tears to the outright severance of family ties. No wonder so many lesbians and gays keep their sexuality under wraps and even get married to fulfil familial obligations – the ultimate sacrifice.

Of course it helps if your parents are bohemian. But their story is not an isolated case. Now, increasingly in China, parents of gay children are not only accepting their sexuality but trying to help other families in the same situation support each other. In 2001, when Sun Dehua – 58-year-old-farmer in China’s northeastern city of Dalian – found out his only son was shacked up with his boyfriend, he literally wanted to kill him. Sun was quoted as saying in the South china Morning Post in an interview published in 2005 that he had even bought a can of petrol with the intention of blowing a gay bar which his son, Mu, had owned and operated in Dalian. It was only after his son and partner fled the city that his father reconsidered his position after his son’s friends mediated the situation. He got to know more of his son’s gay friends and began reading some of the free material in his son’s bar (where he also worked) on homosexuality and HIV prevention.

“I learned that my son is not mentally ill. It was my fault that I didn’t know my own son well enough before.” In September 2006, he started China’s first hotline to help parents understand their gay children. He has also become involved as a volunteer to raise HIV/AIDS awareness among the local gay community. He was quoted as saying in the Post: “I am really glad seeing them together, because Mu is so happy when he’s with him (his son’s boyfriend). Now it feels like I have two sons. And I do hope the law will allow them to get married one day.”

Wu also encourages parents to do their homework on what being gay is all about. "They should seek to find out what science says about homosexuality," she says. "Science can rid them of this unreasonable fear. I feel comfortable that my son is gay because I know being gay is not a crime… or a disgrace." At the end of the day your child’s happiness is more important than carrying on the family name, she says.

On her blog, 60-year-old Wu offers encouraging words to gays and lesbians struggling with their sexuality and dispenses advice on everything from boyfriend/girlfriend troubles to how to deal with parental pressure to have a conventional marriage. She says she values how far-reaching the web can be. "I can actually use my blog to connect to people and express my views – encouraging society and families to accept homosexuality."

She has a lot of fans on her site. Many gays and lesbians find her articles and advice a comforting resource. "Auntie Wu, you are so great!," writes one blogger. "It must be great to be your son. My mother left me when I was seven years old. I cannot imagine what she would think if she knows I am gay." Not everyone is so appreciative. Homophobes also find their way onto her blog. ""Even animals don’t have gay sex," writes one angry blogger. "Don’t you have any shame? Go to hell!" Wu told Chinese media that she sometimes deletes hateful comments but leaves others just to create some controversy.

Their situation attracted the attention of local media. Two years ago the mother and son team appeared on a Nanfang TV talk show. Wu says she was initially worried about appearing on the show. "I hesitated, because here, in this city [Guangzhou], there are a lot people who know me and what would they think of me if they knew my son is gay. But later, I thought there was nothing wrong with my son to love boys, I am his mother. I am supposed to stand by him." She adds that after the show aired she became a minor celebrity. "Even taxi drivers recognised me and encouraged me."

pinknews.co.uk
http://pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-6908.html

20th February 2008

3
China starts HIV prevention schemes among gay men

by PinkNews.co.uk staff writer
The Chinese Ministry of Health is to devise an HIV prevention policy after a rise in infections among the country’s gay population, it announced today. Prevention measures will target MSM (men who have sex with men) and extend condom use, Xinhua news agency reports. The ministry estimates that there are five to ten million gay men in China among a population of one billion, most of them living in cities. Other estimates have put the figure at 40 million.

Research has found that some are married and more than half have more than one sexual partner. China has a conservative culture, partly due to Communist repression, but laws have been slowly relaxed, with homosexuality effectively being decriminalised in 1997. Homosexuality was seen a mental disorder in China until 2001. HIV/AIDS became a major problem in the world’s most populous nation in the 1990s when hundreds of thousands of poor farmers, mostly in the central province of Henan, became infected through botched blood-selling schemes. Recent research found that up to 6.5% of MSM are HIV positive.

The Health ministry will undertake testing and treatment for other sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS testing and prevention training within the gay community during 2008. PinkNews.co.uk reported in 2006 that China approved its first gay and lesbian organisation, Happy Together, which counts professors, teachers and students among its members. In October Chinese academics called for the country’s estimated 40 million homosexuals to be given the right to marry. Professor Li Yinhe, a sociologist and campaigner for LGBT rights, and Zhang Beichuan, a leading scholar of homosexuality, have been at the forefront of a campaign to allow same-sex marriage in China.

She previously attempted to submit same-sex marriage proposals to the National People’s Congress, China’s highest legislative body, but did not succeed due to lack of support from delegates. Campaigners say that gay marriage would also promote safe sex and prevent the spread of HIV/ AIDS.

Fridae
http://www.fridae.com/newsfeatures/article.php?articleid=2186&viewarticle=1

March 10, 2008

4
Beijing lesbian group wins ”she changes the world” award

by Dinah Gardner
Changing the world might take more than 5,000 euros. But it’s a start for Beijing-based lesbian group Common Language, the prize winner of the Mama Cash awards. Mama Cash, a Dutch women’s empowerment organisation, celebrated International Women’s Day over the weekend by announcing the prize winners for their 5,000 euro (US$7,682) "she changes the world" awards. Kudos to Common Language, a Beijing-based lesbian support group, for being one of the winners and the only lesbian group to win an award; the other recipients are general women’s groups around the world. Fridae asked Xian, the founder of Common Language, what she is planning to spend the money on. "We want to donate it to set up a China lala [local slang for lesbian] Fund to help more women, more lesbian and bisexual women not only in Beijing but in other cities and even in remote places to have more community and cultural-related activities," said an obviously happy Xian. "We want to empower the lesbian community in general."

The award is part of a wider initiative from Mama Cash called "Campaign 88 Days" which aims to drum up interest and money into projects supporting women. "We really love that idea and we want to use this Lala fund to be like that, to get into fund raising to support itself." It’s not big bucks, but 5,000 euros can go a long way in China. Since it started back in 2005, it’s not been easy for Common Language to raise money. "For almost the first two years we didn’t apply and had little general support – all of us were volunteers, although we did get some funding for certain projects," said Xian. Some foreign organisations aren’t willing to donate money because Common Language is not registered as an NGO in China.

"Many international organisations require us to be registered to get grants," she says. She cited one German group that refused them a grant on the basis that they weren’t registered as an NGO in China. Common Language is an unofficial group that because of its small size and its non-political nature, has largely escaped the attention of the authorities. Registering as a non-governmental organisation in China is fraught with difficulties and limitations.

"We don’t want to register as an NGO because then we would have to be connected to the government. All NGO’s in China are government related, the government has to know everything you’re doing, they have to agree to all your projects, it is like a censorship," Xian explains. Aizhixing, an Aids/HIV prevention group in Beijing, which also supports LGBT activities and promotes human rights, has registered as an enterprise with the authorities which gives them a semi-official status. Because of the sensitive nature of their work, they intermittently face hassles with authorities.

"We could probably do the same," muses Xian, "as long as we didn’t say we were a lesbian group." In fact they’ve done something better. Just last month, Common Language, Aizhixing, gay news website Aibai and Les+, a free to pick up lesbian magazine grouped to together and registered under an umbrella company called taohong (peach-red or another word for pink). They’ve rented an office space in the southwest of the city and are preparing to open it as a gay culture and activity centre.

"This is one of the reasons why we set up [taohong]," said Xian. "Now we have more chances to qualify for grants and we can minimise administration overheads," as taohong can do some of the office work. For Common Language, funding started to flow in at the end of last year. They now have one full-time and one part-time staff member, although Xian plans to try and get three full-timers when she has enough money. "Right now we have a budget of around 8,000 yuan (US$1,125) a month but our goal is to get about 20,000 yuan a month."

Common Language has two basic goals, explained Xian. "We want to do community empowerment in Beijing by training, by providing some small funds to have more groups like us outside Beijing – the more the better! We want the whole gay women community to be empowered in China." Once they feel they have set up such a base, Xian explained how she wanted to give the group a voice in the greater community. Later "we want to shift our focus to more social advocacy and efforts to influence policy making," she smiled. "We want to change the social attitude and to fight for equality." As China’s only lesbian network, Common Language runs a wide range of projects: a weekly Lala salon where lesbians meet together and talk about issues that affect them; a lesbian news and help website (www.lalabar.com); Les+, a full-colour lesbian magazine distributed freely in lesbian venues; and a project to research domestic violence against lesbians. They also push for greater positive media coverage of lesbians in China and organise activities such as leadership camps, film festivals, and represent Chinese lesbians at international LGBT events. They are currently involved with a project to collect signatures calling for same sex marriage in China.

Changing the world might take more than 5,000 euros, but Common Language is determined to make a go of it.

Fridae
http://www.fridae.com/newsfeatures/article.php?articleid=2203&viewarticle=1

April 3, 2008

5
Beijing Olympic Clean-up Targets Gays, says activist

by Dinah Gardner
Following recent raids and arrests at saunas, clubs and cruising spots, China’s best known AIDS activist Wan Yanhai who circulated reports earlier this week about the government’s crackdown tells Fridae’s Beijing correspondent Dinah Gardner about the local situation. Beijing police have launched a series of raids on gay saunas, clubs, and park cruising spots in what looks like a concerted effort to clean up the city ahead of the summer Olympics, according to an AIDS activist. More than 100 people have been arrested in the space of three weeks and an unknown number of people are still being held a week after they were first detained, says Wan Yanhai, co-founder of Aizhixing (???), a Beijing-based HIV/AIDS advocacy group.

"All the prominent gay cruising areas were raided," says Wan. "One bathhouse is still closed and some people are still in detention; maybe less than 10, but we don’t know how many." He said that on March 17 some 30 policemen, some of them in "special forces" uniforms, descended on Dandong Park near Tiananmen Square. The park is the capital’s most famous gay cruising spot. They pulled in more than 40 people, checked their identity papers, took their photos and pulled those without ID in for further questioning including an outreach worker with Aizhixing. "We talked with one of the boys arrested," says Wan. "He said police asked him if he was a money boy, he said no, and warned him that they had his details on file, that it was Olympics year and that it was foolish for him to go to the park and he shouldn’t go back there."

Three days later, police raided Oasis, a well-known gay sauna in the centre of the city. They detained 74 people, including staff, masseurs and clients, said Wan. Most of the people were held for 30 hours – some up to four days – asked repeatedly were they sex workers and were only released after they paid a "fine" of between 200 (US$28) and 2,000 yuan. The police threatened to inform their families if they didn’t pay the fine, which appeared to depend on how much money the detainee had on him at the time. "This is similar to blackmail," accused Wan. Several other raids on parks and saunas have also taken place while earlier in March, Destination, the main gay club, was hit by police on a busy Saturday night. The club reopened three days later.

While the raids in March appear to be targeting sex workers more worrying is the harassment of a prominent lesbian activist in her own home. Police, both plainclothes and uniformed, came to her house in January and then again in March, asked to see her identity papers, questioned her about her job, demanded a photograph and queried her about her live-in girlfriend. "I guess it was naïve to give them a picture but I wasn’t sure what was going on at the time," said the lesbian activist who prefers not to be named. "I’ve been living her for three years and have never had a problem before."

The second police raid came a day after she had sent out a press release for an event to mark the collection of signatures on a petition calling for the legalisation of same-sex marriage in China. Wan said he thinks it’s not just directed at Beijing’s gays but more the result of a directive to clean up the city before the Olympics specifically targeting sex workers. But "we should clearly tell the Chinese government that this situation is not acceptable and you have to respect human rights before the Olympics and not just to clean up the city to ensure security."

The China Daily
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-04/16/content_6622282.htm

2008 April 16

6
Tianjin transsexual gets new Chinese ID card as a woman

Beijing – Ying Ning, the 33-year-old Tianjin man who became a woman through transsexual operations, got a new Chinese ID card as a female on Tuesday. "I am so excited to receive it after a month-long wait," said Ying, who is believed to be the first transsexual person in China to go public with the media under a new gender. The ID card has a special meaning for me, that I have been accepted by society. It will be the beginning of my new life," Ying told a reporter with the Tianjin-based newspaper Daily News. I was embarrassed by some people’s curious looks. I had to give up my trip to Zhejiang for a winter vacation because I was worried that the male gender on my old ID card would confuse the airport’s security staff," said Ying. "I was really sensitive over this at that time."

At that point, Ying applied to the local police station for a new ID card. Regulations require such applicants to provide medical proof of a gender change and parental consent, even for those of legal age. Born in 1975, Ying, a native Tianjin resident, married a woman in 1998, but the marriage ended months later. "I felt sorry for my ex-wife, but I knew I could not bring her happiness. I always wanted to be a woman," said Ying. Ying underwent about 20 operations starting in November 2006.

China is believed to have more than 1,000 people who have received such operations, but only Ying has acknowledged her new identity, according to the People’s Daily website.

From:
National Prevention Information Network, USA
http://www.cdcnpin.org/scripts/display/NewsDisplay.asp?NewsNbr=50587

April, 2008

7
Prevalence of Bisexual Behaviors Among Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) in China and Associations Between Condom Use in MSM and Heterosexual Behaviors

by Joseph T.F. Lau, PhD; Ming Wang; Hong Nei Wong; Hi Yi Tsui, MPhil; Manhong Jia, MD; Feng Cheng, PhD; Yun Zhang, MD, MBA; Xiaoyou Su, MSc; Ning Wang, PhD

Abstract
The researchers undertook the current study to examine the prevalence of bisexual behaviors and marital status among MSM in China and the associations between their condom use and their heterosexual behaviors. The subjects of the study were 896 adult males in Yunnan Province, China, who reported ever having engaged in MSM behaviors. The men were interviewed, and data were acquired through the China-UK HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Project from 2003 to 2006. One-third of respondents had ever been married; 59 percent reported having engaged in bisexual activities; 31 percent had done so in the previous six months. Inconsistent condom use was reported in 71.9 percent of heterosexual behaviors. Of those who reported MSM activity in the previous six months, 30.8 percent reported inconsistent condom use with commercial sex workers, and 54.7 percent reported inconsistent condom use with noncommercial sex partners. Those who did not use condoms with MSM sex partners were more likely than others not to use condoms with female sex partners (FSP). Those who had participated in voluntary counseling and testing services were more likely than others to have used a condom in their last sex with FSP (multivariate odds ratio = 1.66). The authors concluded, “The clustering of unprotected sexual behaviors with male and FSP among MSM is revealed. The bridging effects of the risk for [HIV] transmission among the MSM population to the female population are evident.”

Source: http://www.stdjournal.com

China Daily
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/citylife/2008-06/02/content_6729108.htm

2008 June 02

8
Club LC debuts on the gay scene

Quietly sitting at home one night, I received a surprising text message. Written in Chinese, the message claimed that the largest gay bar in Asia would "warmly" open that weekend in Shanghai. As a jaded gay, I was quite skeptical of the message and quickly dismissed it, but my dancing feet eventually got the best of me.

The gay clubbing scene in Shanghai is not in the best of shape. Club Deep closed a long time ago. PinkHome’s troubles continue to affect its reputation. As one of my gays told me, "PinkHome is dead." Nowadays, most of the regular clubbers end up at Shanghai Studio, complaining that "there’s no where else to go." In fact, many gays have resolved themselves to, gasp, going to straight bars in order to get their dance on, with MAO and M Seven being the most popular clubbing destinations.

While I am not sure of the legitimacy of its claim as the largest gay club in Asia, Club LC’s ("Live Cool") most remarkable feature is its size (no pun intended). Many Shanghai gay club goers are used to being crowded together like sardines. It was refreshing to go to a place where I didn’t feel like I was on top of someone else. (Or maybe that isn’t such a bad thing.)

After a fun night of ogling and dancing, I was quite optimistic about the future of the club. With Club Deep out of the picture and PinkHome quickly fading into obscurity, Club LC could easily fill the void. In addition to dancing and drinking, the club also features nightly performances starring ridiculously skinny boys that need to eat a hamburger–or four. While the performances aren’t worth writing home about, it’s certainly better than some sad drag queen shows I’ve seen.

"Sure, it’s big, but when there’s no one there, it looks completely empty," said one club goer that I spoke to. I would have to agree with that statement. Popularity is very important in the Shanghai gay community. For example, if it looks like no one is dancing and having a good time, they all head to the exits as if there’s a fire. With its large space, eventually the crowd will probably dwindle away and Club LC will fade just like the others. While the pessimist in me believes that, for the sake of Shanghai’s gay club scene, I really hope I’m wrong.

The Jakarta Post
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/06/09/asian-gay-transgender-groups-fight-their-rights.html

June 09, 2008

9
Asian gay, transgender groups fight for their rights

by Irawaty Wardany, Denpasar
(Bali) Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) groups in Asia have agreed to develop an international network to advocate protection of their rights in their respective countries and at the regional level. Bali hosted a conference of the groups from June 2 to 6 in the tourism enclave Nusa Dua. The conference was attended by 21 participants from eight countries — Indonesia, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, China and Thailand. "We agreed to make some kind of international network to advocate protection of LGBT rights in our countries," Rido Triawan, head of Arus Pelangi, an Indonesian non-governmental organization that fights for LGBT rights, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday. He said it would be like an open communication channel connecting LGBY communities in different countries, so that when there was a problem in one country the communities could work in unison to apply political pressure on the government in question.

Generally, Rido said, LGBT communities in Asia faced similar problems. "We are all at this time suffering from stigmatization, discrimination, persecution from religious groups and discriminative government regulations," he said. "For example, the 2004 regional regulation in Palembang, South Sumatra, categorizes LGBT as a form of prostitution," Rido said.

He said religious-based persecution was the most difficult problem LGBT groups faced in Indonesia. "Those religious doctrines are then being integrated into the formal education curriculum. Naturally, the curriculum educates the students that the only ‘normal’ and accepted sexual orientation is heterosexuality," he said. Consequently, other sexual orientations are considered as not "normal" and unacceptable. This has resulted in students and communities discriminating against members of the homosexual and transgender community. "There are many cases of discrimination experienced by members of the LGBT community. One example involved a man who openly acknowledged his sexual orientation of being gay. Suddenly, his company fired him for no apparent reason," Rido said.

He said other gay workers faced varying levels of hostility from co-workers. "They suddenly keep a distance or, even worse, socially isolate him just because he is gay," he said. He said upholding the rights of the LGBT community was a significant issue since sexual orientation was also part of human rights. Rido said the LGBT community in Indonesia just wanted to be acknowledged and treated the same as the other Indonesian citizens, who enjoyed the right to education, health, work and all the other basic human rights. "It is still very hard for people to accept the fact that LGBT are also human beings, who should be treated humanely," said Arus Pelangi secretary general, Yuli Rustinawati.

A Sri Lankan LGBT activist, Rosanna Flamer-Caldera, said the situation in Sri Lanka was worse than in Indonesia. "Being part of LGBT communities in Sri Lanka is similar to committing a criminal offense. That’s the reason why people with LGBT sexual orientation prefer to be invisible," she said. She said members of the LGBT community in her country who fell victim to criminal acts often didn’t report their cases to the police, because the treatment they would receive could be worse than the perpetrators of the criminal acts. She said she participated in LGBT conferences and seminars around the world to learn about human rights instruments that could be used to advance the struggle in her country.

China View
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/18/content_8569593.htm

July 18, 2008

10
Beijing’s gay scene comes out of the closet

by Qiu Lin
Beijing, (Xinhua) — Most weekend nights, long lines of hip young men wait for entry at a bar opposite the west gate of Beijing Workers Stadium, where a row of fancy dance clubs light up the night with flashing neon. But here, another world awaits these men. It’s the place to see and be seen. The dim backlit letters spell out its name, Destination, reputedly Beijing’s hottest gay club. When owners Wang Qiang, "Edmund" Yang and their friends dreamed up Destination three years ago, they wanted to create a place for gays and lesbians to hang out "with dance music in tune with clubs in other major cities such as New York and London".

At weekends, the floor is always crowded with young men dancing close to each other to hit songs from Rihanna, Justin Timberlake or Kanye West. The strobe lights flash over their ecstatic faces and sweating bodies. Some stand in the corner drinking, flirting or just watching.

A DJ himself and a producer of a dance music radio programme in Beijing, Edmund regards music as the soul of the club. "We want our friends from other big cities around the world to feel at home when they come here." This year, readers of "That’s Beijing" listings magazine voted Destination the "best place to dance" in the capital. "Darren" Li, 24, who frequents the club, looking for romance. "I met my boyfriend on the dance floor," he says with a grin. China has become more tolerant of homosexuality with its economic and social development. Gay communities have mushroomed in large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

The Ministry of Health estimated in 2004 that China had 5 million to 10 million gay men. But Professor Zhang Beichuan, of the medical school of Qingdao University, an expert on Aids prevention among homosexuals, estimates that there are about 20 million gays and 10 million lesbians in China. In 1997, "hooliganism", which was considered the de facto decriminalization of homosexual acts, was removed from China’s criminal code. In 2001, homosexuality was removed from China’s official list of mental diseases.

Today, China’s young gay men enjoy a freer environment. With the thriving online gay communities, such as aibai.com, idanlan.com, gays can easily find each other and arrange activities through on-line forums or chat rooms. "This is a place for gays and lesbians, but we don’t do any special promotion. People come here and feel they belong," says Edmund. Destination has enjoyed unfettered business in Beijing. Its clientele is overwhelmingly male and about a fifth of them are foreign. "The government doesn’t bother you as long as you don’t do anything illegal. It’s the same for every club," Wang says. He points out that Destination is a place for those with alternative lifestyles as well as those who love dance music and just want to "chill".

"Walter" Liu, 28, a fashion magazine editor, comes to Destination every weekend with his boyfriend to get together with friends from an online gay group. "This club is just like its name. Gays come here as their destination. It’s a platform to meet people and relax with friends," says Walter. He sometimes goes to Bear Den, another gay bar, which is especially popular with "bears", slang for gays who are heavy-set and place importance on presenting a hyper-masculine image. "Men who go there are more mature," says Walter. Bear Den plays quiet music and offers a second floor for its customers to talk.

Walter, always curious and quick to check out gay bars such as Dushi Qingdao (Love Island in the City) and Bear Den when they first open, says he has seen gay bars come and go. "It’s not easy to run a gay bar successfully." Destination is an exception. Already, it is expanding to two floors, with the dance floor temporarily closed because of the renovation, Edmund says. "Hopefully the work will be done before the Olympics," he says. "I think our club will showcase Beijing as an open city and when tourists come, they will know there is such a place in Beijing."

Gays still tend to be careful about "coming out" to their parents and colleagues. "If my company knows I’m gay, it’s possible that I’ll get fired," says Walter, who sees no point telling his parents because "it will make them sad and affect your life". But some optimistic gays say China is no worse than anywhere else in the world. "Coming out to your parents is never easy anywhere," says Darren. "They still hold traditional views and they think a family is only whole with a wife, a husband and offspring. There is no point hurting their feelings if I don’t have to." Edmund says: "If you don’t do anything illegal, you live just like anybody else. People are more open-minded nowadays."

sovo.com
http://www.sovo.com/print.cfm?content_id=8986

August 08, 2008

10a
‘Rattling the bamboo closet’ – From trendy gay bars to traditional families, gay Chinese caught between two worlds

by Laura Douglas-Brown
Twelve years ago, as the last Summer Olympics held in the United States prepared to open in Atlanta, elected officials and gay leaders gathered for an Olympic first: a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the official opening of the Gay & Lesbian Visitor’s Center. Throughout the 1996 Atlanta games, the center — with the blessing of the Atlanta mayor’s office — offered information, exhibits, concerts and theater productions where gay tourists and athletes from around the world mingled with the city’s highly visible gay and lesbian population.

Now, as the 2008 Summer Olympics open in Beijing, gay tourists and athletes can expect a very different atmosphere in a nation where an international economy and cosmopolitan cities coexist with Communist government oversight and strict cultural traditions. In March, outspoken AIDS activist Wan Yanhai sent an email to Chinese HIV and gay Internet groups documenting six instances of alleged police raids on gay nightclubs, gathering places and bath houses in Beijing.

Noting that a gay bath house in Shanghai was also shuttered, “evidence shows that this time, crackdowns are being carried out at the national level,” wrote Wan, the founder of the AIDS-related Aizhixing Institute, who has been jailed several times for criticizing the government’s response to HIV. The report alarmed the blog Shanghaiist, which noted that “gay life in China has been enjoying pretty much unfettered development over the last decade, so it could be that we’re at a point in time when the authorities see the need to rein in the unbridled growth.

“Are the crackdowns being executed as part of a larger ‘spring cleaning exercise’ ahead of the Olympics so China would be able to project to the world its best image, whatever that means to the powers that be?” the blog asked. “Only time will tell.” As the Olympics neared, Wan claimed that he and other human rights activists faced increased police scrutiny. But websites for popular gay clubs in Beijing, like trendy Destination, indicate that they are open as of press time, and other activists say they have not experienced specific oppression.

“There has been a gradual tightening of control in and around Beijing, on all kinds of venues. It does not appear that gay venues are being singled out,” said Damien Lu, one of about 40 volunteers who run the Aibai Culture & Education Center, which operates two gay centers in China, a gay library, and a website (www.aibai.cn or www.gaychinese.net) that logs about 65,000 visits per day. Lu is the only Aibai leader who does not live in China; a resident of Los Angeles, he visits China twice per year. Lu said he communicates with Wan “almost daily,” and is aware of the concerns he raised about police crackdowns.

“Most LGBT people in China disagree with him on this,” he said. Edmund Yang, one of the owners of Destination, responded to an email interview request from Southern Voice by noting, “We’ll take a look at your questions before reverting to you.” Answers were not received by press time, but the club is clearly readying for an influx of visitors, posting a website notice about “celebrating and enjoying the 2008 Beijing Olympics at the ‘bigger and better’ Destination.”

Meanwhile, concern over the conditions faced by gay citizens in China is among the factors that motivated the New York-based Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to include the issue, along with tips for covering gay athletes, in its new Olympic Media Resource Kit. “Media outlets have used the Olympic Games to draw attention to human rights issues in China, and the Games have created a opportunity for the stories of the LGBT Chinese community to garner unprecedented media coverage,” said Andy Marra, GLAAD’s Asian Pacific Islander media coordinator.

Conflicting Influences

The Olympic Games have focused world media attention on China, where the government is anxious to shed its image as an oppressive Communist state in favor of a modern country that has become an economic superpower. But the Games have also become a focal point for criticism of Chinese policies, from environmental pollution in major cities like Beijing to alleged human rights abuses in Tibet and other areas. The issues faced by gay and transgender citizens deserve similar scrutiny in a country that limits freedom of speech and assembly, according to GLAAD. “By weaving gay and transgender personal stories and issues into coverage of the Olympic Games, media will play a vital role for shining a spotlight on the current state of human rights in China,” the gay watchdog group argues in its media guide.

Homosexuality was not always curtailed in China.

“Remarkably, a calm and dispassionate attitude to the homosexual phenomenon was always prevalent in ancient China,” the state-run newspaper China Daily reported in a 2004 article. The article, one of many focusing on gay issues now published by government-run media outlets, relied on research by renowned Chinese sexologist Li Yinhe in her book “History of Chinese Homosexuality.” Li, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of the Social Sciences, frequently focuses on sexuality issues, and has called on the government to allow same-sex couples to marry.

Her historical research documents male homosexuality throughout the Chinese dynasties, and notes that the first Chinese law against gay sex was not enacted until 1740. The Communist Party took power in 1949; during Chairman Mao Zedong’s brutal Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976, “homosexuals faced their worst period of persecution in Chinese history,” China Daily reports. The last decade brought particularly rapid change. In 1997, the Chinese law against “hooliganism,” used to criminalize gay sex, was removed. In 2001, homosexuality was scrubbed from the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders — almost three decades after the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1973.

“After 2001, everything changed,” activist Didier Zheng, host of China’s first gay series, told China Daily when his online show debuted in 2007. “Society is changing. We are paying more attention to gay man’s socialization and integration into society.”

Signs Of Change

As in other areas of Chinese life, gay — or “tongzhi” — citizens live in a world divided between traditional influences and rapid modernization. Signs of increasing tolerance, if not full acceptance, are everywhere. Gay bars thrive in major cities and are becoming more common in smaller ones. “I expected I would find an underground scene in Beijing … What I didn’t expect was how enthusiastic and healthy the scene was,” said James West, gay Australian journalist who lived in Beijing from 2005 to 2006 and has a book on his experiences, “Beijing Blur,” due for publication in November.

West recalled visits to Destination, Beijing’s most popular gay club, which he said “heaved every Friday and Saturday nights with boys kissing boys and girls kissing girls.” “And while outside the doors, pink might not really go with Communist red, inside kids were making friends and community and talking identity,” West recalled. As in the U.S., the Internet is a major source for gay Chinese citizens to meet and share information. Activists say there are hundreds of gay organizations in the country, most focused on HIV activism, which may be less likely to draw scrutiny than overt political activism.

“There is a dichotomy here,” Lu said. “In recent years, the government has made a lot of effort to involve the LGBT community in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Toward that end, the health branch of the government approves of LGBT work and has good relationships with us as well. However, the propaganda and public security branches of the government are still nervous of the LGBT community.” State-run media outlets frequently cover gay topics, and in 2005, Fudan University in Shanghai began offering China’s first undergraduate course on gay studies.

Still, again like the United States, progress on gay issues has been far from smooth. Gay organizations have held colorful marches in Hong Kong, which was under British rule until 1997 and is given a wide-degree of local autonomy for 50 years under the agreement that transferred control back to China. But Beijing police allegedly blocked a 2005 Lesbian & Gay Cultural Festival in the capital city, using a combination of permit and fire-code issues to diffuse the international gathering.

Family Pressure

Pressures don’t come only from the government. Chinese culture places tremendous importance on loyalty to family. “The greatest oppression that Chinese LGBT people face comes from their family, as the pressure to marry and procreate is very, very strong,” Lu said. “Many young LGBT while in college, away from home, live a very open gay lifestyle, yet when they graduate, they get married.” West saw this pressure in the lives of his gay Chinese friends. “The gay clubs in the capital attract both foreigners and locals. But foreigners living in Beijing don’t have family to answer to, and are a lot more free as a result,” he said. “We didn’t have to say good bye to our friends at 11 p.m. to go home to our mums. And we didn’t have to lie really.”

Still, Lu said, more and more gay Chinese are “gathering the courage” to come out. Progress is happening quickly, West agreed. “Freedom for gay people in Beijing is fragile, but ever-changing,” he noted. “And there are a lot of individuals pushing against the systemic homophobia, rattling on the doors of the bamboo closet to come out.”

shanghaiist.com
http://shanghaiist.com/2008/08/20/eye_on_gay_shanghai_gay_sports_in_s.php

11
Eye on Gay Shanghai: Gay Swim Teams and Other Olympic Sports

In honor of the Beijing Olympics, Shanghai’s #1 fag hag scoured the city for info on gay sports. Everyone knows a large gay contingent can be found daily at our most popular gyms. However, did you realize Shanghai also hosts gay swimming (we’re sure Michael Phelps or Zhang Lin are welcome), badminton, table tennis, volleyball and even kungfu!

Rainbow League is the fantastic association that organizes many of the gay sports clubs in Shanghai (more info available in Chinese here). They were created about one year ago as a splinter group of the national gay organization, Sunhomo. Currently, Rainbow League boasts about 700 members and offers a mix of athletic and cultural activities.

Rio, the friendly co-founder, said they started the organization so that gay people have a venue to make friends and play sports. Although for many participants, their families are unaware they are homosexual, they feel comfortable joining in gay sporting activities. Rio says, "Generally, outsiders don’t realize it’s a gay club, but they are curious as to why there are only males!" Predominantly Chinese men, about 10% of the members are foreigners and there is a mix of gay, straight, and bisexuals.

For reasons that many of us can guess, the most popular activity is the swimming club. The groups meet throughout the year and in five different areas of Shanghai. The most popular faction is the Huangpu team that gathers at a middle school pool near People’s Square. They have up to 70 attendees in one night! The Rainbow League’s swim teams even won three bronze medals at a mixed gay and straight swim competition in August. Even if you’re not an Olympic athlete, you can still join as they offer free coaching.

Kungfu is another popular gay sport. This group meets in Zhongshan park on Saturdays and has about 50 members. Go kungfu pandas! (Urgh, was that politically incorrect?)

To participate in one of Rainbow League’s sports team, you are only required to pay the facilities’ fees. However, they also offer a 5 RMB membership card, which entitles you to discounts at the various sports venues. At present, besides swimming and kungfu, the group offers badminton and table tennis as well as cultural clubs like English salon, photography, KTV, and finance. Watch out for their new volleyball listings scheduled to start in September!

Rio is happy to answer questions about Rainbow League in English or Chinese and can be reached at qcshhz@hotmail.com or you can catch him at the Shanghai LGBT event at Frangipani the last Thursday of every month.

P.S. There are rumors of a gay Riviera-like pool party circulating. Will keep you posted! If you have any tips to share on the gay scene in China, email shanghaifaghag {at} gmail.com.

Photo provided by Eastglam (Full disclosure: We don’t want people to accuse us of trying to pull another Beijing Olympics subterfuge. This pic is taken from the Bangkok Pride, not the actual Shanghai swim meet.)

Click for stats on the number of Gay Olympians.

washingtonblade.com
http://www.washingtonblade.com/2008/8-15/news/worldnews/13103.cfm

August 15, 2008

11a
Chinese gay bars open, activism slowed during Olympics – Activists find inspiration, new enemies from the West

by Laura Douglas-Brown
The first paragraph of the Aug. 9 entry on John Amaechi’s blog could have been written by any Olympic tourist guilty of staying up too late to take in the local culture. “I had to wake up at 6 a.m. this morning, which was not fun considering I had been up until 3 a.m., watching the opening ceremony and hanging out at ‘Destination’ again,” he wrote. “I have to say that it got busy very late — I am officially too old for bars that close at 5 a.m.”

Only Amaechi isn’t just any tourist, and Destination isn’t just any bar. Last year, Amaechi made worldwide headlines when he became the first NBA player to come out as gay, three years after retiring from professional basketball. And Destination is the most popular, contemporary gay bar in Beijing, which some activists had fretted would face closure as the Chinese government tried to strictly manage the city’s image during the Olympic Games. Now, Amaechi, who once feared being ostracized in the sports world, is in Beijing to broadcast Olympic basketball games for the BBC. And the party at Destination continues, drawing a mix of Chinese citizens, ex-pats, and tourists.

“It is a sizeable club, very pleasant staff, which is not a given in every gay bar,” Amaechi told the Blade. Amaechi noted a lack of racial diversity — “Not many black people about in Beijing outside of the athletes” — and a lack of dancing on weeknights, but otherwise found Destination to be similar to many high-end Western gay bars. Destination’s Edmund Yang confirmed that the club, which recently expanded from one floor to two, is open and thriving with the Olympics underway.

“So far we have seen more foreign visitors coming to Destination,” he said. “We had a large crowd on the dance floor on Aug. 9, Saturday. The highlight of the night was most of them singing along to the chorus of ‘YMCA’ when I played this oldie towards the end of my set.” But while gay nightlife has continued in Beijing during the Olympics, Chinese activists acknowledge that the Games have impacted their work. “There are many new regulations on security, such as Internet censorship, travel, migrant workers in Beijing,” said Bin Xu, who leads an organization for lesbian and bisexual women based in the Chinese capital. “We have to be careful with our work to avoid intriguing safety concerns.”

The heightened security and general restrictions in place during the Games make activist work almost impossible, agreed Damien Lu, a volunteer with Aibai Culture & Education Center, which operates two gay centers and a gay library. “Most LGBT groups, particularly those in Beijing and surrounding areas, have completely suspended their work during the Olympic period, partly because of logistic reasons (transportation problems, etc), partly because the Beijing public security has become hysterical and closed down many entertainment venues, gay or otherwise,” said Lu, who lives in Los Angeles but travels to China frequently for gay rights work and maintains constant contact with activists there.

“Since many of these groups’ work consists mainly of conducting outreach at these venues, it effectively made it impossible for them to continue,” he said.

‘Homosexuality and AIDS’

Olympic visitors to Beijing will also see another familiar symbol: the ubiquitous red ribbon that has come to recognize the fight against HIV. According to reports in state-run Chinese media, the Red Cross Society of China plans to pass out thousands of copies of “Together for HIV and AIDS Prevention: A Toolkit for the Sports Community” during the Games, while also stressing HIV awareness at Chinese universities. The Olympic effort focuses generally on preventing HIV transmission and discrimination, but as in the United States, the fight for increasing visibility for gay people in China has been inextricably linked to the fight against HIV. Today, an estimated 700,000 Chinese are HIV-positive. Some 11.1 percent contracted the virus through male-male sexual contact, according to a report from the Chinese Ministry of Health, UNAIDS, and the World Health Organization.

The Chinese government did not issue its first research on HIV and gay men until 2004. But since then, outreach efforts, ranging from targeted prevention campaigns to free health clinics for gay men, have been frequent subjects of matter-of-fact news reports from state-run media like the Xinhua News Agency. “In recent years, the government has made a lot of effort to involve the LGBT community in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Toward that end, the health branch of the government approves of LGBT work and has good relationship with us as well,” said Lu, the Aibai Culture & Education Center volunteer. Although the government works openly with gay groups in efforts to stem a growing AIDS epidemic, criticism of its efforts from within may meet with a far different response.

Dr. Wan Yanhai, founder of the AIDS-related Aizhixing Institute, has twice been arrested for speaking out against the government’s response to AIDS. In 2002, he went public with information about blood-contamination that may have led to hundreds of thousands of infections; he was arrested again in 2006 for claiming the government was asleep at the wheel in AIDS prevention efforts. And for Chinese gay activists, being linked with HIV is a double-edged sword — a dilemma familiar to those in the West. On one hand, the fight against HIV has helped bring gay issues into the forefront, increasing the visibility of gay men and forging alliances between activists and government health workers.

But the two issues now run the risk of being not only related, but conflated in the eyes of both government and the general public.

Western exports

Along with stereotypes about homosexuality and pressure from families, gay Chinese face an additional hurdle, Bin noted. Despite the fact that homosexuality has been documented in the country as far back as the Chinese dynasties, where emperors’ male liaisons were accepted, Bin and her fellow activists must also battle the idea that being lesbian or gay is “something bad imported from the West,” she said. There is something bad being imported from the West, but it isn’t gay visibility, according to Lu of Aibai Center.

“I think we need to alert our friends here about two relatively recent developments in China, because both are partly the result of U.S. ‘exports’ and we need everyone’s help to stop them,” he said. The two unwelcome exports are religious fundamentalism and ex-gay therapy, Lu said. “Many of the religious fringe elements, having been kept at bay in the U.S. by the LGBT community, are seeing China as a new territory,” he said. “There’s been a huge surge of various religious extremist groups entering in to China.”

Lu cited James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, a well-known foe of American gay rights groups that now has chapters in China. Dobson, whose name is translated as “Dr. Du Busen” on Focus on the Family’s Chinese website, also appears regularly on Chinese state-run radio.

Focus on the Family did not respond to interview requests about their Chinese chapters.

Homosexuality was officially removed from China’s list of mental disorders in 2001, but Lu said “ex-gay” therapy is also common. “Many religious conservatives from the West, mainly the U.S., go to China as mental health experts, and continue to spread lies,” he said. “In the past two years, Aibai has twice organized activists in successfully defeating two events billed as seminars or conferences on sexuality while in reality, they were venues for ‘reparative therapy’ proponents to spread their misinformation.”

But Western influence can also be a positive factor for lesbian and gay Chinese. As the country emerges from decades of cultural isolation, websites like Aibai bring news of gay rights struggles around the world to Chinese citizens every day. “Although in different continents and social, cultural and political environments, we find many things in common between LGBT people in the U.S. and in China: the oppression from the mainstream society towards sexual minorities, and the struggles LGBT people go through,” Bin said. “We are inspired by many stories in the history of the LGBT movement in the States, the courage and the dedication of LGBT individuals to make social change. We hope to do the same.”

The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/sports/olympics/24diving.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

August 24, 2008

12
Gay Australian Diver Matthew Mitcham Outperforms China’s Best, Wins Olympic Gold

See video of Matthew’s dives: http://dailymotion.alice.it/video/x6iyuo_matthew-mitcham-medaille-dor_sport

by Katie Thomas
Beijing — All week long, the Chinese have spun into the diving pool as if pulled on a wire, piercing the water with the smallest of splashes. But on Saturday night at the men’s 10-meter platform finals, their can’t-miss consistency finally faltered, and they failed to win a gold medal in a diving event for the first time in the Beijing Games. The Australian Matthew Mitcham took the honor, scoring a 112.10 in the final round that edged Zhou Luxin of China by 4.80 points. The Russian Gleb Galperin placed third, leaving Huo Liang in fourth place — the first time during this Olympics that a Chinese diver placed lower than third. The finish stunned Mitcham, 20, who failed to reach the finals in the 3-meter springboard event on Tuesday and ended up finishing in 16th place. Before Saturday’s competition, Mitcham said he tried to relax and enjoy the experience.

“I was definitely stressing it to myself, just enjoy the moment,” he said after the competition. “I never thought that this would be possible. I wasn’t even sure of my medal chances at all.” Mitcham started the finals with a mediocre dive that earned him 7s and 8s and placed him ninth over all. On his second dive, he more than made up for it with a back three-and-a-half somersault that won four 10s from the judges and put him in second place. Still, Zhou held first place throughoutthe first five rounds and Mitcham seemed destined for a silver. Then, Zhou curved his body before the entry on his final dive, a reverse three-and-a-half somersault, and the judges gave him 6s, 7s and 8s. Mitcham followed with a nearly flawless dive that not only carried a higher degree of difficulty — a 3.8 compared to Zhou’s 3.4 dive — but also earned him four more 10s from the judges.

After the dive, Mitcham popped his head out of the water and smiled broadly, then climbed out of the pool and raised his arms into the air. After he saw his score, he dropped to his knees and began to cry. The Chinese had hoped to sweep the diving events in the Olympics with eight gold medals. In a news conference after the medal ceremony, Zhou said nerves got in the way of his diving. “I think I had a chance to get the gold,” he said. “Maybe it’s because I was too energetic to have a good performance after that first round that I made some mistakes.”

Saturday’s results were also disappointing for the Americans, who wondered why they did not win any medals in a sport in which they had once dominated. This marks the second Olympics in a row in which the United States has not won a medal. The two Americans in the finals, David Boudia and Thomas Finchum, placed 10th and 12th, respectively. However, the Americans did better than their performance in Athens, when several divers did not make it to the finals, said Bob Rydze, vice chairman of competitive excellence for USA Diving. He noted that three of the four synchronized diving teams — all but the women’s 10-meter platform team —finished five points below the bronze-medal scores. “Personally, I thought they had three medals easily in the synchro,” he said after the competition. After Athens, he said, “our major goal was to get reorganized and really work for 2012.”

thinkprogress.org
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/24/mitcham-olympics/

August 24th, 2008

13
NBC Censors Sexual Orientation Of Openly Gay Gold Medalist Diver

According to OutSports.com, of the 10,708 athletes at the Olympics this year, just 10 have identified themselves publicly as being gay. Of the 10, Australian diver Matthew Mitcham is the only male gay athlete. Yesterday, Mitcham won the gold in the in the 10m platform diving event, scoring an upset over the Chinese team, which was heavily favored to win. But as Maggie Hendricks at Yahoo’s Olympics blog notes, NBC never mentioned Mitcham’s orientation: NBC did not mention Mitcham’s orientation, nor did they show his family and partner who were in the stands. NBC has made athletes’ significant others a part of the coverage in the past, choosing to spotlight track athlete Sanya Richards’ fiancee, a love triangle between French and Italian swimmers and Kerri Walsh’s wedding ring debacle.

In his press interview after the event, however, Mitcham stood with both his mother and his partner, Lachlan, thanking them for the support they’ve provided. Watch it: Click Here

Mitcham first came out in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald on May 24. Mitcham said that they couldn’t afford for Lachlan to attend the games, so had applied for — and was awarded — a grant through the Johnson & Johnson Athlete Family Support Program to send him to Beijing. According to the LA Times, the first thing Mitcham did when meeting with journalists after his win was “hug the reporter who handled the story with particular sensitivity.

San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/21/MNGB12CRTC.DTL

August 22, 2008

14
Beijing’s homosexuals live in the shadows

by Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer
Beijing – The Beijing Olympics have not changed anything for Benjamin Han. He is still gay, still single and still compelled to hide his orientation from public view. The 28-year-old employee of a large international public relations firm is one of an estimated 5 million to 10 million gay men in China who live, for the most part, in the shadows. Homosexuality has only been legal for 11 years in China. Although the Chinese Psychiatric Association took it off the list of psychiatric disorders in 2001, same-sex unions are still considered immoral by the authorities.

The modernization of Beijing in preparation for the Olympics actually made things worse for gays. Several gay clubs were bulldozed during the frenzy of street-widening and high-rise building during the run-up to the games. "It’s probably more restricted in Beijing than in other cities in the country," said Han, sitting in a fashionable bar near his home in east Beijing. "In general, it is still very much a taboo topic. You don’t talk about it at work, you don’t talk about it with your family. You only talk about it when the other person knows something about it already and you really trust them."

The government-controlled media in China sometimes hints about the subject, but it is never openly discussed. Han said he knows several Chinese journalists through his work who have told him there have been written notices from the propaganda department telling them not to bring up the subject. Han was born in suburban Guangzhou. He was an only child, which is standard in China, and both of his parents worked, so a nanny took him to school. He said his mother and father were not like most other Chinese parents, who make most decisions for their children.

"I was growing up on my own most of the time," he said. "It is not that they didn’t care. It is that they just couldn’t understand what I was up to." He came to Beijing in 2000 to study English and American literature and culture at the Beijing Institute of Technology. He continued his studies for one year in the United Kingdom, which opened his eyes to a wider world. "There is a degree of choice and freedom that does not exist here," Han said. "It was more or less a surprise." But Han, who goes by a Chinese name with his family and friends in China, never told his parents that he is gay and does not plan to do so. Only a few of his friends know the truth.

His mother has been pressuring him to get married and have children, and he keeps putting her off. "I actually tried to have a girlfriend to please my parents," he said of a two-year relationship he had with a childhood friend that ended three years ago. "It was difficult in the sense that I didn’t want it to get too far." Han tells his mother now that he doesn’t want to get married because he wants to concentrate on his career.

Despite these pressures, he sees himself as lucky that his work allows him to travel, meet people and stay informed, whereas most gay men and lesbians in China live lonely, secretive lives, in which finding partners can be an ordeal. The only gay club left in Beijing is a place called Destination, a gray concrete block near several glamorous heterosexual night spots near the west gate of Workers’ Stadium in eastern Beijing’s Chaoyang area. On weekend nights, it is packed with trendy young Chinese residents, corporate mavericks, Olympic tourists and expatriates. Han said many call it "Desperation."

Lesbians are not much better off. There is just one club, West Wing, that caters to them. There is a group called Pro Men, which hooks up professionals who are gay, Han said, and gay-themed Web sites featuring local chat rooms. There is even a chat room for gay Buddhists. But, for the most part, the gay scene in Beijing is restricted to clandestine Internet affairs. No one is openly hostile, according to Han, but the community is ignored, passed off as a Western problem.

"I would like to see a more liberal media environment where people could comment on the subject and have a discussion," Han said. "You see that in places like Hong Kong and Thailand. Singapore is also closed, but they have at least opened up discussion." There were promising signs a few years ago when several new gay clubs opened and some of the trendy night spots began holding gay- and lesbian-friendly nights. In 2005, there was an International Gay and Lesbian film festival in Beijing. But tourists can no longer expect to learn about the gay life of emperors on a tour of the Forbidden City.

"Things could change in China in the next 10 years, but I’m not looking forward to the wait," Han said. "This is a Confucian society, and these values are not going to go away."

E-mail Peter Fimrite at pfimrite@sfchronicle.com.

pinknews.co.uk
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-8911.html

September 5, 2008

15
5% of Beijing gays are HIV+ say health authorities

by Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk
The number of gay men in the Chinese capital who have HIV is much larger than previously thought. New figures from the Beijing Centres of Disease Control and Prevention indicate that ignorance upt o 5% of gay men in Beijing have HIV. Difficulty in getting the message about safe sex across to closeted gay men are contributing factors. Officially there were 214,000 people living with HIV in China by July 30th 2007, but it is feared many tens of thousands more are not on the official lists.

Beijing authorities examined one million blood samples between January and July this year and found 563 people infected. Among them, 118 were permanent residents of the city. This year China’s Ministry of Health implemented its first ever national programme to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS among gay men. The programme marks a subtle new phase in the one-party-state’s attitudes towards homosexuality since sodomy was decriminalised in 1997: No approval, no disapproval and no promotion. Gay sex accounted for just 0.4 percent of new infections in 2005, but that figure had risen to 3.3 percent by 2007.

Of the estimated 700,000 Chinese people living with HIV or AIDS, 11% contracted the virus through gay sex, according to Ministry of Health figures. While homosexuality is still officially classified as a "mouldering life style of capitalism" in the officially communist state, there are no laws against gay sex or lifestyles. Neither are there any laws protecting Chinese gays from discrimination.

chinadaily.com.cn
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-09/09/content_7009413.htm

2008 September 09

16
Unsafe sex ‘biggest threat’ for gay men

by Xie Chuanjiao (China Daily)
The incidence of HIV/AIDS among Beijing’s drug users is in decline but the city’s gay community remains the most at-risk group, a local health official said on Friday. He Xiong, deputy director of the Beijing center for disease control and prevention (CDC), said that based on figures for the first seven months, 1.5 percent of the city’s drug users are HIV positive, compared with 5 percent in 2001. In comparison, 5 percent of gay men in the capital are HIV positive, while 0.5 percent of unlicensed prostitutes are infected with the virus, He said, without giving figures for 2001.

"More than 43 percent of all newly reported cases are attributed to people having unprotected sex, and gay men are the most at risk," he said. Research carried out over the past three years has shown that less than 50 percent of gay men use condoms, so promoting better health awareness among them is a major task, he said. During the first seven months of the year, 563 new HIV cases were reported in Beijing, 118 of which involved local people and the rest migrant workers, He said. New cases were reported in each of Beijing’s 18 districts and counties, he said.

In the whole of last year 1,190 new cases were reported, up slightly on 2006, he said. While the development of a comprehensive HIV/AIDS monitoring network – comprising 69 clinics and 128 laboratories – has helped keep the spread of the virus in check, high-risk groups must become more aware of the dangers, the head of a local volunteer group told China Daily Monday. Xiao Dong, chief of the Chaoyang Chinese AIDS Volunteer Group, said: "Gay people must voluntarily practice safe sex and take regular tests."

The efforts of groups like Xiao’s are vital to reducing the health risks faced by Beijing’s gay community, He said. "They work closely with gay people and provide free condoms and confidential consultancy and test services." Between January and July, more than 1 million people in Beijing had received an HIV test, He said. Also, prevention and treatment clinics throughout the city now have intervention teams to work with high-risk groups. These people help not only with essential medical treatments, but also everyday matters such as problems at work, he said.

Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE49070K20081001

October 1, 2008

17
HIV up sharply among women, gay men in China

by Tan Ee Lyn
Hong Kong (Reuters) – HIV infections jumped 8-fold over the past few years in parts of China among gay and bisexual men, according to new data from southern China. Published in Nature, the study found that the proportion of HIV-positive women of child-bearing age doubled in the past 10 years and researchers warned the disease was moving from high-risk communities into the wider population. There were an estimated 700,000 HIV/AIDS cases in China as of October 2007, up 8 percent compared to 2006, it said. Some 38 percent of cases were attributed to heterosexual contact, more than triple the 11 percent in 2005.

Cases among gay and bisexual men jumped to 3.3 percent in 2007 from 0.4 percent in 2005. "HIV/AIDS is spreading beyond the high risk populations, largely due to increased transmission through sexual contact. It implies that HIV/AIDS is not only a disease that affects high risk population, but the general population alike," professor Zhang Linqi, director of the AIDS Research Center in Beijing, wrote in an email reply to questions from Reuters.

The study focused on the epidemic in China’s southwestern Yunnan province, which has a long history of opium and heroin trade and where infections are highest among intravenous drug users. Yunnan borders Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. The researchers studied 3.2 million blood samples tested between 1989 and 2006 in Yunnan. While the proportion of intravenous drug users fell from 100 percent in 1989 to 40 percent in 2006, heterosexual transmission rose markedly, accounting for 37.5 percent of infections in 2006.

Women now make up 35 percent of those infected in Yunnan, from 7.1 percent before 1996. "As 90 percent of these women are of child-bearing age (age 15 to 44), this is likely to translate into more vertical transmission from mother to child," they wrote in the article. Such changing demographics have resulted in changes in HIV strains now circulating in Yunnan. They can be classified into two main groups, one circulating in Thailand and Myanmar and the other in France and the United States.

"It makes treatment and vaccine development even more challenging," Zhang wrote, adding that prevention strategies that have proven successful should be scaled up.

(Editing by Jerry Norton)

ontopmag.com
http://www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=2523&MediaType=1&Category=4

October 10, 2008

18
Gay Chinese Documentary In Oscar Race

by On Top Magazine Staff
A documentary on the life of young gay men in China is in the running for an Academy Award, reports Reuters. Tongzhi In Love reunites the Oscar-winning pair of director Ruby Yang and producer Thomas Lennon. Love follows three young gay men in Beijing, where a thriving gay scene allows the men to be free. But for Frog Cui, Long Ze and Xiang Feng the cosmopolitan city is just an escape from their countryside roots, where their families remain unaware of their sexuality. The friends disagree on coming out in a society where tradition dictates the family must produce a child to carry the family line – pressure which is only compounded by China’s single child law.

Frog wants to honor the family he loves and make them happy by marrying and having a child, Xiang commits to coming out to his family, and Long believes gays who do not marry are selfish. “That attitude is selfish, completely selfish … If you live your whole life for yourself, not for your parents, how are you going to fulfill your responsibilities as a Chinese man?” he asks. Chinese traditions, family obligations and sexual freedom collide in Love.

The 30-minute film is the second Academy Award nomination for the filmmaking pair of Lennon and Yang, who began working in China in 2004. Their 2006 Oscar-winning documentary, The Blood of Yinghou District, explored China’s struggle to deal with AIDS. “It was our concern with AIDS that first drew us into filming young gay men,” said director Ruby Yang in a press release. “But the magic of documentary film is that you don’t always know, or control, where your story is going to take you. There is not a single reference to HIV or AIDS in this film. It’s a story about stigma, about being forced to lead a double life.”

msmandhiv.org
http://www.msmandhiv.org/documents/CDC0052.pdf

November 2008

19
Elevated risk for HIV infection among money boys: a hidden group of MSM in China

by H. Liu1, H. Liu2, Y. Cai3, H. Hong3
1Virginia Commonwealth University, Epidemiology, Richmond, United States, 2China Center for AIDS/STD Prevention,
Beijing, China, 3Shenzhen Center for Chronic Disease Control and Prevention, Shenzhen, China

Background: Empirical research among money boys (MBs) in China is scant. MBs are men who have sex with men (MSM)
for money. The objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence of MBs among MSM and to compare HIV-related
risks between MBs and non-MB MSM.

Methods: A respondent-driven sampling (RDS) was used to sample MSM in Shenzhen, China in 2007. RDSadjusted
estimations and RDS-weighted logistic regression were preformed to estimate MB prevalence and to examine
risk factors.

Results: After 5 waves of the RDS recruitment, 58 MBs and 293 non-MB MSM were recruited and interviewed. The
RDS-adjusted prevalence of MB among MSM was 0.09 (95% CI: 0.05-0.13). Compared to non-MB MSM in the RDSadjusted univariate analysis, MBs were younger (23 vs. 28 years old), more likely to work in entertainment venues (71%vs. 32%), and more likely to be unmarried (93% vs. 75%). The majority in both groups received at least middleschooleducation. More MBs than non-MB MSM reported having had multiple anal sex partners (79% vs. 67%) and multiple oral sex partners (91% vs. 71%) in the past 6 months, having had female sex partners (43% vs. 26%), having bought sex from female sex workers (14% vs. 4%) and from other MBs (16% vs. 9%), and having used drugs (21% vs. 12%). Half of MBs and non-MB MSM consistently used condoms. Multiple logistic regression analysis confirmed the results in the univariate analysis. No significant differences were found in self-perceived HIV risk, consistent condomuse, and peer norms on condom use between the two groups.

Conclusion: This study demonstrates that both MBs and non-MB MSM are under high risk of acquiring and transmitting
HIV. There is an urgent need to implement HIV intervention programs targeting MSM, especially MBs.
Presenting author email: hliu@vcu.edu

iasociety.org
http://www.iasociety.org/Default.aspx?pageId=11&abstractId=200716223

November 2008

20
Sexual risk behaviors and HIV infection among men who have sex with men who use the internet

by H. Zou1, J. Yu2, M. Li2, M. Ablimit3, F. Li3, L. Pang1, Z. Wu1
Background: MSM is increasingly using the Internet to find sex partners. Yet the demographic characteristics of MSM who use the Internet (MSMUI), their risky sexual behaviors and prevalence of HIV and syphilis are not well studied.
Methods: Between June and August 2007, 429 MSMUI were recruited via the Internet from Beijing and Urumqi, China. Interview was conducted in a private room with a questionnaire administered face-to-face by a trained interviewer. Information collected included demographic characteristics, Internet use and sexual behaviors. Blood specimen was collected and tested for HIV and syphilis.

Results: The mean age of participants was 27 years. Nearly three quarters (72.7%) had an education of some college or more and 22.8% were students. Median number of lifetime male sexual partners was 10. Most identified as homosexual (70.9%) or bisexual (18.5%). Ninety-one percent were Han ethnic. Average age for first sex with man was 21 years. Proportions of condom use in the last oral sex, insertive anal sex and receptive anal sex with a male partner were 8.8%, 66.3% and 60.4%, respectively. Forty-one percent ever had sex with a female partner, and 42.1% of whom used condom in the last sex. Ninety-one percent ever had sex with a cyber friend. Most (390, 96.5%) participants supported online HIV/STI counseling. The prevalence of HIV, syphilis, and co-infection were 4.6%, 11.2%, and 1.6%, respectively. Factors associated with HIV infection were being 24 years old or younger (OR=2.934, 95% CI: 1.069-8.055), being syphilis positive (OR=4.814, 95% CI: 1.734-13.362) and having anal sex before knowing how to use the Internet (OR=3.225, 95% CI: 1.128-9.227).

Conclusions: MSMUI engages in high risky sexual behaviors for HIV infection and has a high prevalence of HIV infection. It is urgent to design and implement specific and effective intervention programs to target this special group of people. The Internet might be an effective platform.

pinknews.co.uk
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-9699.html

November 28, 2008

21
Number of HIV+ gay men in China rises to 5% in three years

by Tony Grew
A new survey of gay men in China has found that 4.9% are living with HIV. In 2005 the figure was 0.4%. The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said the survey questioned more than 18,000 gay men in 61 Chinese cities. The 2005 survey only covered two cities.

"Sex becomes the major way of AIDS transmission in China and its spread among men having sex with men was worsening notably," Hao Yang, deputy director of the disease control department under the Ministry of Health, told Xinhua news agency. I think whether we can well control the AIDS transmission among gays will greatly affect the future of the whole country’s battle against the epidemic."

In September the Beijing Centres of Disease Control and Prevention said that up to 5% of gay men in capital city have HIV. It cited the difficulty in getting the message about safe sex across to closeted gay men is a contributing factor. Officially there were 214,000 people living with HIV in China by July 30th 2007, but it is feared many tens of thousands more are not on the official lists. Beijing authorities examined one million blood samples between January and July this year and found 563 people infected. Among them, 118 were permanent residents of the city.

This year China’s Ministry of Health implemented its first ever national programme to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS among gay men. The programme marks a subtle new phase in the one-party-state’s attitudes towards homosexuality since sodomy was decriminalised in 1997: No approval, no disapproval and no promotion. Gay sex accounted for just 0.4 percent of new infections in 2005, but that figure had risen to 3.3 percent by 2007. Of the estimated 700,000 Chinese people living with HIV or AIDS, 11% contracted the virus through gay sex, according to Ministry of Health figures.

While homosexuality is still officially classified as a "mouldering life style of capitalism" in the officially communist state, there are no laws against gay sex or lifestyles. Neither are there any laws protecting Chinese gays from discrimination.

The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/30/AR2008113000259.html

November 30, 2008

22
China’s rural migrants are new front in AIDS fight

by Lucy Hornby,Reuters
Beijing (Reuters) – The new face of AIDS in China is a shy man with a heavy provincial accent, a weathered face and the rough hands of a manual worker. Zhang Xiaohu, a character in an educational film for migrant workers, is part of a trend that worries Chinese officials: the potential for AIDS to spread among the estimated 200 million rural migrants driving the country’s rapid economic expansion. AIDS in China has, to date, mostly been limited to drug users, gay men, prostitutes and the victims of reckless blood-buying schemes in the 1990s.

By the end of 2007, China had about 700,000 people with HIV/AIDS — 0.05 percent of the total population — health officials said on Sunday, ahead of World Aids Day the next day. "The epidemic is lowly prevalent in general but it is highly prevalent among specific groups such as migrant workers, and in some regions particularly remote areas and the countryside," said Wang Weizhen, deputy director of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment at the Ministry of Health, according to state media.

Higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases and other risk factors among male migrants have spurred an intensified effort to reach them before HIV spreads faster among them, and into the broader population. "Other at-risk groups are rather small, but this one is huge," said Sun Xinhua, head of an office to combat AIDS that reports directly to the State Council, China’s cabinet.

China’s construction workers, miners and casual laborers have all the ingredients for HIV to spread. Often far from home, bored, and with some spare cash in their pockets, few of them use condoms when they visit prostitutes as rootless as themselves. "You must stay away from these women and keep yourself out of trouble, especially when you are working away from home," said Liu Guilin, 38, at a dusty construction site in eastern Beijing. "There are many dark corners now in Beijing. There are always women coming up to you and trying to drag you away."

Sexually transmitted diseases are more common among the migrants than the general population, but they have less access to healthcare and information than permanent city dwellers. Their fear of rejection from co-workers and of losing jobs make many reluctant to test for HIV, which if not held back by drugs, leads to full-blown AIDS and usually death.

"I heard that you are doomed if you get AIDS. So if we found out anyone had it, we would stay well away from him," said Zhang Shiliang, 35, a slight cement layer who has left his family behind in Sichuan for six years while he forages for work. Zhang, who said he was not clear on how AIDS spread, doubted that any of the hundreds of workers sharing his makeshift dormitory could have contracted the disease.

Barriers
The stigma and fear surrounding AIDS and embarrassment about talking about sex compound the difficulty of reaching the migrant population, who often lack access to information and deeply distrust officialdom. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told AIDS workers and doctors on Sunday that more should be done to "strengthen prevention work in key areas and key populations," state radio news reported on Sunday. Wen also vowed more money for AIDS medicine, which has fallen short of needs.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the International Labour Organization hope "Hometown Fellows," a short film with a Charlie Chaplin-like feel, will help break down barriers when it is shown at workplaces and mines. In the film, shot partially in black and white, Chinese film star Wang Baoqiang, himself a former construction worker, shares toil, sweat and daily life with Zhang Xiaohu, a fellow worker ostracized because he has HIV.

Zhang is played by Wang Zhenting, a man who contracted HIV in 2002, and who knows what that rejection feels like. "Some other workers had a lot of prejudice against us. But the government is working to raise awareness," he told reporters at the launch of the film. "Now, some people are OK with me, but some are still not."

(Additional reporting by Phyllis Xu; Editing by Valerie Lee)

pinknews.co.uk
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-9798.html

December 9, 2008

23
Beautiful Thing debut brings tale of British gay teens to Shanghai

by Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk
One of the most acclaimed plays about teenage gay experience is to open in the Chinese city of Shanghai later this month. Beautiful Thing, a 1993 play by Johnathan Harvey about two working class London teenage boys coming to terms with their sexual attraction to eachother, was a stage and screen hit in the UK and across the world. Website Shanghaiist describes it as an "unlikely coming-of-age story" and refers to it as the city’s first gay play.

"Sensitive Jamie (Joakim Eriksson) would rather watch rainbows and musicals than be at school and is infatuated with his athletic classmate and neighbour Ste (Derek Kwan) who has to deal with a drug-dealing brother and abusive, alcoholic father at home," said Shanghaiist. "Their sassy neighbour Leah (Sophie Lloyd — formerly fashion editor of SH Mag) has been kicked out of every school in the area, has a drug problem and can’t stop listening to her mom’s Cass Elliott records. Meanwhile, Jamie’s feisty mother Sandra (Christy Shapiro) juggles her job as a barmaid and her ever-changing string of lovers, the latest of whom is Tony (JP Lopez) who is younger than her and a neo-hippie."

The play will run for two nights and all proceeds will be donated to an HIV charity that works with men who have sex with men (MSM). There has been a sharp rise in the number of reported HIV infections among MSM in China’s major cities. This year China’s Ministry of Health implemented its first ever national programme to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS among gay men. The programme marks a subtle new phase in the one-party-state’s attitudes towards homosexuality since sodomy was decriminalised in 1997: No approval, no disapproval and no promotion.

Gay sex accounted for just 0.4 percent of new infections in 2005, but that figure had risen to 3.3 percent by 2007. The latest figures, released in November, estimated that 4.9% of gay men are HIV+. Of the estimated 700,000 Chinese people living with HIV or AIDS, 11% contracted the virus through gay sex, according to Ministry of Health figures. There are no laws against gay sex or lifestyles. Neither are there any laws protecting Chinese gays from discrimination. Homosexuality was listed as a mental disorder in China until 2001.

Gay China News & Reports 2008

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