Hostile society keeps China's gay community cowed
by Tiffany Bown
Beijing, Dec 12 (AFP) - "David" is a 23-year-old Chinese
politics student. Few friends know he is also a homosexual looking
for a lover in a society where even fellow gays are disgusted
by their own behaviour. While in awe of the handful of gays who
are daring to speak openly in order to promote awareness in a
hostile society, the student, like most Chinese homosexuals, has
little intention of joining them.
"Coming out publicly would be a disaster for an ordinary
person - he would be fired and ostracised," said David, who
was willing to speak on condition that his Chinese name not be
used. "Most just care about their own lives, they just want
to try to be happy."
This is hard enough. Many Chinese gays - burdened with ignorance,
discrimination and fear - are unable to comprehend their homo-
sexual yearnings and close themselves off from society, tormented
by self-hate, said Wu Chunsheng, one of China's few campaigners.
"It's very common for Chinese gays not to have a single homosexual
lover in their life," said Wu, noting that finding a steady
partner was hard even for the minority who dared to venture out
to tolerated gay meeting spots like Beijing's Dongdan Park and
the five-star Kuniun Hotel's discotheque.
On certain nights, more than a third of the disco's crowd are
gays at their most relaxed.
But, even here, intimacy is limited to furtive glances, whispers
over a can of Coca Cola or, for the daring, a brief touch on the
packed dance floor. Holding hands or any openly camp behaviour
is out and, to the untrained eye, the club's gay crowd remain
all but impossible to distinguish.
The disco is also expensive, putting it off-limits to ordinary
Chinese like David, who complains it is full of "money gays"
looking only for sex. He, like many others, is also uncomfortable
picking partners up in parks.
"I've been to Dongdan to look for a lover but I was disgusted.
I don't think Dogdan's a good place, I don't like the atmosphere,"
he said.
"I'd prefer to meet someone during my normal life - but that's
very, very difficult," said the student, who, since recognising
his homosexuality in January, has managed to overcome his initial
disgust thanks to privileged access to objective material in his
university library.
Most gays are not so lucky, which their ignorance and guilt instead
reinforced by scant information in the media that tends to connect
homosexuals with either Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)
or crime.
While long-term jail sentences for homosexuals on "hooliganism"
charges have become rare in recent years, police continues to
promote fear in the cowed community by occasionally rounding gays
up and fining them or detaining them for several days.
With so many negative factors preventing gays from nurturing a
stable relationship, many instead resort to sordid, "unsafe"
encounters in public toilets. Afterwards, they return home to
their wives and resume pretence of a heterosexual life.
"After the age of 30, more than 90 percent of gays get married
- because social pressure makes them believe they have no choice.
But the continue to find gay partners on the street and have unprotected
sex," said campaigner Wan Yanhai.
Wan, Wu and other activists are seeking to tackle massive ignorance
about AIDS and homosexuality, in part to help prevent an explosion
in sexual transmission of the deadly disease.
In their most ambitious initiative yet, they gathered some 40
nationwide specialists in Beijing for a two-day conference aimed
at drawing up policy recommendations to be forwarded to the government.
Wu is meanwhile conducting a nationwide survey of homosexuals,
while Wan recently resurrected a salon and hotline shut down by
the government last year.
"I want to bring homosexuals out from underground and improve
interpersonal relations by promoting daylight gatherings and encouraging
people to discuss their problems," said Wan.
But the activist's efforts to change social attitudes are frustrated,
in part by the lack of cohesion within the gay community as well
as by the absence of government support.
"Change won't happen fast. We can't yet start talking about
gay rights - if you push for this too fast in China then you'll
just get the opposite," said Wu.
"We have to take it step by step - first by convincing the
government of the need to tackle the gay issue in order to deal
with urgent practical matters like AIDS," he said.
***
Gays Living in Secrecy
BEIJING (UPI) -- Like most Chinese homosexuals, Han Yue strives
to keep his secret from all but a close circle of gay friends.
Like others, his biggest fear is that someone, someday, might
find out he is gay.
``I've lived with this deep fear of discovery for years, and it
knocks all the self-confidence out of you,'' he says, looking
much older than his 32 years. ``Now I just feel inferior.''
Han Yue, a pseudonym, has been arrested twice. Once the police
beat him and then informed his boss, costing him a promising job
as a clerk at the Ministry of Culture.
His first homosexual encounter at 16 was snatched in the dark
during a violent earthquake in 1976 that knocked out Beijing's
electricity supply.
Subsequent encounters took place in parks, toilets and once at
the so-called ``Democracy Wall'' in Beijing which, he says, was
a favored meeting point for homosexuals during the brief democracy
movement in 1979.
Han Yue is unsure of how many sexual partners he has had, but
he knows the figure is high. He knows he has never used a condom
and he knows, but does not care, about AIDS.
``Most of us think, 'The sooner I get it, the sooner I'll be dead,'''
he said. ``We wouldn't think like that if we hadn't been hurt
so badly.''
Now he shares a cramped Beijing flat with his mother. But he leaves
every Lunar New Year -- China's equivalent of Christmas when families
come together -- because his elder brother a few years back stumbled
across a private diary recording his homosexual encounters.
``If I'm there at New Year my brother will eat, then he'll drink,
then he could start talking about me and I would be finished,''
he says.
In secret, he attends ``Men's World,'' China's first support group
for gay men set up in late 1992. But he is skeptical of recent
official attempts to publicize the existence of homosexuality
in China.
``The newspapers talk about how hard it is abroad, about how gays
in America and Europe are mistreated, but they never talk about
how hard it is for Chinese homosexuals,'' he said. ``We don't
live like human beings. We live the life of ghosts.''
``The Forest of Ghosts'' also is the title for a book Han Yue
has written recalling his experiences and those of gay friends.
Stories of arrest and beatings at the hands of the police that,
he says, happen every day.
The book includes a particularly disturbing passage describing
the arrest and rape of one of his gay companions by members of
the People's Militia, the volunteer civilian force that often
patrols homosexual haunts.
``It broke him,'' Han Yue recalls. ``He wanted to commit suicide.''
``The Forest of Ghosts'' has attracted the interest of a state-run
publishing firm in south China's freewheeling Hainan Province,
but so far the company's managers say the book is too sensitive
to put on the market.
To Han Yue, their decision comes as little surprise. ``This is
still China,'' he said. ``I really love my country like I love
my mother, but she's not perfect and in some respects I hate her
with all my heart.''
***
Gays in Taiwan
I'm studying in Taiwan and just recently the Taiwanese government
held a hearing entitled "Who cares about gay rights?"
Here is how one English newspaper reported the forum.
Taiwanese Ministry of Education official condemns gays
A Ministry of Education (MOE) official yesterday compared homosexuals
to drug addicts and questioned whether they should be granted
basic human rights.
Speaking at a public hearing yesterday [Tuesday, December 28th,
I think], Cheng Chung-cheng, a director of student affairs at
the MOE, said: "Homosexuals should not pollute others with
their relationships," adding that education authorities "do
not know how to handle this problem."
Cheng's statement immediately sparked heated protest from a number
of people present at the hearing who said, "Homosexuality
is not a disease, neither a crime nor a tumor."
Six local groups later issued a joint statement protesting actions
or messages which discriminate against homosexuals. They demanded
that homosexuals be protected from personal attacks or discrimination
in employment or education.
They also requested that homosexuals be included in and protected
under the "Anti-Discrimination Law."
The six groups included "Between Us," "the Asian
Lesbian Network," "Speak out," "National Taiwan
University Gays and Study Club," "Comrades Club,"
and "Love and Happiness News."
At yesterday's hearing, the groups also criticized Taipei City
police for having insulted homosexuals in various incidents at
Taipei New Park in 1990 and this year.
The meeting, convened by DPP Legislator Yen Chin-fu, was held
as a public forum on homosexuality.
Here are just a couple of notes about the article:
1. The use of the word "tumor" is, from what I've
noticed, usually a reference to problems or conflicts which can
easily spread within a group, or in this case, society in general.
I have heard of a few cases where people were either not hired
or fired due to their orientation, but there is no law which makes
this practice illegal in Taiwan.
2. Taipei New Park at night becomes a predominately gay park.
I'm not a member of any of those six groups and I don't know
anything else about what happened during the meeting nor any results
(good or bad) of the meeting. I am now trying to find out what
is really going on via a friend of mine who is gay and has friends
in the "National Taiwan University Gays Study Club."
***
CHINA'S GAYS QUIETLY WORK TO RAISE PROFILE RELATIVE FREEDOM
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 1995
China's gays quietly work to raise profile
Relative freedom accorded activists By Ian Johnson Baltimore Sun
BEIJING -- At first glance, Wan Yanhai hardly seems the type to
be on the cutting edge of social change in China. The 32-year-old's
office is a small teahouse in downtown Beijing, his filing system
an overstuffed briefcase and the closest he gets to the ``information
superhighway'' is an old beeper. But his shoestring operation
gives him the freedom to work as a researcher into gay health
issues, a job that would be impossible in China if he had a big
office and a big budget.
Although not supported by the government
-- indeed, he is sometimes harassed by the police -- Wan is relatively
free to study and pursue his other interest, helping China's fledgling
gay movement organize itself. ``Their attitude towards us now
is not to bother us,'' Wan said. `` `Ignore and don't ask,' that's
their attitude.'' This is a sharp change from several years ago,
when homosexuality was considered a disease and independent scholars
were singled out as responsible for instigating anti-government
demonstrations.
Now, as China's opening to the outside world continues
and its society becomes more complex, people are forming interest
groups and working on sensitive topics that the government has
given up trying to control. Some headway China's gays have not
gotten so far as to lobby the government for a change in laws
-- such as allowing gays to serve in the military or legalizing
homosexual marriages -- but Wan and a loose network of about 50
other activists in Beijing have made headway on several projects.
Their work includes handing out literature on AIDS prevention,
counseling gays who meet in parks, conducting opinion polls and
writing up their research for health publications. With help from
the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, which provided a $10,000
grant last year, the research is providing the first glimpses
into China's gay population and its health needs.
Never strictly
illegal in China, homosexuality has always been taboo, said Dr.
Liu Dalin, a Shanghai-based sexologist.
Traditional literature
is full of references to male and female homosexuality, where
it was sometimes viewed as harmless unless it interfered with
one's duty to have a family, Liu said. `A gray area' ``You can
never find laws or proclamations that homosexuality is illegal.
But no law has ever said it's legal, either, so homosexuals have
always occupied a gray area,'' Liu said.
After the communist takeover
of China in 1949, gays -- and anyone else engaging in other than
a limited range of government-sanctioned activities -- were persecuted.
Stories are told of gays being murdered during the Cultural Revolution,
a 10-year period of chaos and stringent conformity that ended
in 1976. Today, shame still keeps most gays in the closet, Wan
said. It also encourages ignorance of health risks, with condom
use limited to about 5 percent, according to one of his surveys.
Partially as a result of this behavior, the official number of
HIV carriers has reached 1,774, and independent experts believe
the real number to be higher than 10,000. Despite the growing
problem, the government has moved slowly to promote AIDS awareness.
Wan's former employer, the health ministry's National Health Education
Institute, has little money for advertising and does almost no
social work among the gay population.
Information, counseling
Wan makes regular visits to Beijing's main gay hangout, Dongdan
Park, and to discos where gays hang out. He distributes information
and also counsels. The government's -- and perhaps society's --
ambivalent attitude toward his work is reflected in continuing
harassment. He was temporarily detained on last year's world AIDS
awareness day for distributing leaflets about AIDS. A hot line
he started was also shut down after authorities said it encouraged
immorality and human rights. Still almost unresearched is the
world of Chinese lesbians, said Li Yinghe, a sociologist at the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
A newspaper last year carried
a report about widespread lesbianism in Chinese prisons, but so
far no lesbian organizations have been formed, Li said.
Source.
From: Taken from the QRD (Queer Resources Directory) on the Internet
at http://www.qrd.org/QRD, and other sources
This text is part of the Internet
History Sourcebooks Project. The Sourcebooks are collections of public domain and
copy-permitted texts related to all aspects of history.
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© Paul Halsall, 1998
