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Public Tolerance Needed for Chinese Gays to Tackle AIDS
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Abstract
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| Large-scale HIV/AIDS prevention among Chinese gay men will require greater social acceptance and tolerance of them, according to gay-rights advocate Wei Jiangang.
The author of the popular “Queer Comrades” blog noted that a government-funded gay bar in Dali, southern Yunnan province, did not open as scheduled on Dec. 1. Local officials said the postponement was necessary to protect those involved from discrimination.
Homosexual practices were criminalized in China until 1997, and homosexuality was classified as a mental illness until 2001.
A recent report by UNAIDS and China’s Ministry of Health found sexual transmission accounts for more than 70 percent of all newly detected HIV/AIDS cases in China. Sexual transmission among gay men accounts for 32 percent of all new cases.
Discrimination inhibits safe-sex practices, said Zhao Jinkou, senior adviser with the Beijing office of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “When sexual activity is hurried and furtive, it’s hard to negotiate condom use with partners.”
Professor Zhang Beichuan, an expert on HIV/AIDS prevention and homosexuality at Qingdao University, estimates China’s homosexual population at 30 million. A survey Zhang conducted of 1,259 gays found 62 percent have not disclosed their sexual orientation at work for fear of retribution.
Gays are also under tremendous pressure to get married and have children. According to a Chinese saying, having no child is the biggest disrespect to a man’s parents.
Because gay men’s relationships are neither encouraged nor protected, they are less stable and the men face greater chance of HIV transmission, said Zhang.
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Source
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| http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/ |
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Subjects
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Asia
Gay Men
HIV/AIDS Prevention
Sociocultural Factors
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cdcnpin.org News Record #54464
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