Up to 16 million gay Chinese could be married, said HIV- and AIDS expert Professor Zhang Bei-Chuan told the China Daily, the country's largest English-language newspaper. Zhang supports the online project "Home for Women of Gay Men" by journalist Xiao Yao, who divorced her homosexual husband in 2008. Her website, which has 1,200 registered users, offers women in a similar situation the opportunity to share their experiences. "Most of the wives of gay men I know suffer in silence because of men they don't love and can't love," said Xiao Yao.
Xiao Dong, a 36-year-old gay man and chairman of an HIV NGO, considers estimates of the number of married gays to be speculative and unhelpful. He fears that the pressure on gays could even increase if their wives were to take centre stage. A 50-year-old gay man from Beijing quoted in the Chila Daily article, who cancelled his already planned marriage after a positive HV test, conveys: "Homosexual men and their wives are both victims of social discrimination and stigmatisation, we shouldn't blame either side."
Even though the legal situation for homosexuals has improved - since 1997 the Anal intercourse Since 2001, homosexuality is no longer considered a mental illness - gays and lesbians are barely present in the public eye. "The pressure is still there. And the discrimination. People in public life never admit to their homosexuality. They are also afraid of the pressure," said sociologist Li Yinhe from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in a recent interview with DeutschlandRadio Kultur. "In the countryside or as a worker in a factory, you're considered abnormal if you admit that you're gay or lesbian. People then make life difficult for you."
Experience has shown that discrimination and concealment also make HIV prevention difficult because it is not possible to talk openly about risks and protective measures. Of the approximately 48,000 people who became infected with HIV in 2009 according to UNAIDS, 32.5 per cent were men who have sex with men. According to the National Centre for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention China (NCAids), an estimated 780,000 people were living with HIV/Aids in China in 2011.
(sho/hs)
