CHINA: Gay lifestyles and websites becoming more open in Beijing but traditional attitudes taking a long time change

Record ID: 277915

  • Title: CHINA: Gay lifestyles and websites becoming more open in Beijing but traditional attitudes taking a long time change
  • Date: 1st May 2002
  • Summary: (L!1) BEIJING, CHINA (RECENT) (REUTERS) WIDE OF LIT-UP SIGN AT NIGHT OUTSIDE THE ON/OFF BAR, MEETING PLACE FOR MANY GAY PEOPLE SLV PEOPLE WALKING INTO BAR SMV OF CONDOR HAN, GAY ON/OFF BAR MANAGER AND CHU TIAN, DIRECTOR OF GAYBYTE.COM WEBSITE LEADING DISCUSSION ON ONE NIGHT STANDS IN BAR WITH AUDIENCE SCU CHU TIAN TALKING SCU CONDOR TALKING SMV LESBIAN CUSTOMER ARGUING WI
  • Embargoed: 16th May 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BEIJING, CHINA
  • Country: China
  • Topics: People
  • Reuters ID: LVAC4LS65SHAFT1AN8IZGWLKK24D
  • Story Text: As more gay websites and bars open in Beijing, China's long closeted gay community is finding new forums to air its problems, but in the countryside, where times change more slowly, it's a different matter.
    It may look like any other bar in Beijing, but the On/Off bar is one of the few places where the city's gay community can talk openly, meet new partners and discuss long suppressed issues.
    Once inside, people who have routinely hidden their sexuality from friends and family for years can finally open up.
    Every Thursday night is an open-mike gay salon, and tonight the topic is one night stands and AIDS.
    On/Off manager Condor Han and gay activist Chu Tian (pronounced Choo tee-yen) who lead the discussion are some of the few gay Chinese who are willing to be identified.
    Most of the audience in On/Off do not want to be filmed for fear of rejection by their families.
    The norm in the gay community is to get married, play it straight at work and shuttle regularly between two lives. The risk of AIDS infection is high with many men often involved in one night stands instead of long-term relationships.
    Chu Tian said, "I think that Chinese society does not take gay issues into account and does not give gay relationships the same rights as straight people's relationships. So, they have no other choice but to have one-night stands, because they can't find a stable sexual partner."
    Chu Tian is dedicated to publicising gay issues and used his own money recently to set up gaybyte.com. website.
    It joins a host of 250 gay websites and various newsletters which serve as virtual therapists for men who live outside big cities and have no access to gay bars.
    China has long kept homosexuals in the closet. It only effectively decriminalized homosexuality in 1997 and homosexuality came off the list of mental illnesses just last year. Many gay people fear ostracism if they come out.
    Many people, like gay activist Zhang Yi (pronounced zhang yee) thought they were freaks because they were attracted to men.
    "I thought I was the only gay person in China. I knew that there were gay people abroad but I thought I was the only one in China and I just couldn't understand why. So, I looked it up in a book, a really thick medical book and there was a really short explanation saying homosexuals were abnormal and freakish and would get AIDS.
    After that I felt really really depressed and I tried to commit suicide. I tried to kill myself because I thought I was abnormal and could get AIDS," Zhang said.
    The Gay Hotline, which opened in 1997 has offered help and advice to many gay people, like Zhang Yi who used to live in a small town.
    The hotline, open on Tuesday, Thursday and the weekend, is operated by nine volunteers who do not want to be identified.
    Callers phone a pager number and hotline volunteers ring them back.
    Volunteers are trained in counselling and callers vary from desperately lonely people, gay men who are married, and family members wanting information.
    The hotline publicises their pager number online, and in gay bars and saunas.
    Many of the callers are also people wanting information on safe-sex and AIDS.
    State-supported education on AIDS and prevention efforts targeted at gay men are rare.
    AIDS education is very complicated among gays in China because the group of men who have sex with men overlaps considerably with the heterosexual community.
    While gay men are often at the forefront of raising awareness, China's lesbian community are also doing their best though in a quieter way.
    Artist Shi Tou (pronounced shur-tou) is one of the few gay women who is does not mind being identified.
    Her brightly coloured paintings and photographs often centre around a gay theme and feature her girlfriend.
    Lesbians face the same problems as gay men with huge family pressure to get married and carry on the family line.
    "(In China) you should find a good husband, have a good life and give birth to a child. If you destroy those things then there will be a lot of problems. On top of that, many people used to believe that it (being gay) was a disease. Also our society is male dominated with a lot of male leaders -- and if you're a lesbian then men think that you don't need them and they feel pressured." Shi said.
    Shi is one of the lucky ones. Brave enough to overcome prejudice she can air her grievances and problems through art.
    But for most of the other gay people in China, there is no outlet and they can only wait for radical changes in Chinese society before they are accepted as normal people with a different sexuality.
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