Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...Report: Closeted gay men fueling HIV in China
03.25.2009 5:13pm EDT
(Beijing) Chinese society’s taboo on gay sex and the pressure to enter into opposite-sex marriages is fueling HIV and spreading the virus into a wider segment of society, a medical researcher says.
“The stigma and discrimination against homosexuals in Chinese society have prevented gay men from revealing their sexual orientation or taking HIV/AIDS tests and treatments, holding back the efforts to curb the disease,” Prof. Zhang Beichuan of Qingdao University told the official Xinhua news agency.With the help of LGBT groups in nine major cities, Zhang polled men in gay bars and bath houses. Of the 2,250 gay men surveyed, 20.7 percent were married to women.
Other surveys have found that as many as 90 percent of China’s gay population is closeted.
“In western countries, only a fraction of homosexuals would get into heterosexual marriages. But in China, about 70 to 80 percent of gay men had the intention of marrying a woman sooner or later,” Zhang told Xinhua.
The survey found that about half of the men polled had looked for strangers to have sex. More than 18 percent participated in group sex and 13 percent said they paid for sex.
When questioned about sexually transmitted diseases, more than 20 percent said they had experienced an STD during the past six months. Less than a quarter had taken an HIV/AIDS test, with 2.2 percent positive.
Zhang told Xunhua that society needs to show a greater understanding and tolerance toward gays. He also said the government needs to provide better access to HIV/AIDS education.
For some groups in Asia (particularly those influenced by Christian missionaries) homosexuality is a religious issue, but the problem of gay rights resistance in Asia is not inherently religious in nature.
Asian cultures in general tend to stress social conformity a lot more than the West does. In the West, individualism is something we typically value, but the East, broadly speaking, does not place a lot of emphasis on individuals.
East Asia in particular has the idea of conforming to society’s expectations very ingrained in its culture. It’s not that homosexuality is an ‘abomination’; it’s that getting married to a member of the opposite sex and having children is a social expectation and people tend to shun those that live contrary to the perceived norms.
Japan and Taiwan are the only countries in East Asia that have *any* laws protecting gays from discrimination. However, in Japan, those laws exist only in certain municipalities, and Taiwan isn’t universally considered an independent state.
Homosexuality is legal in all East Asian countries (except North Korea), but is a taboo subject in all of them, and none offer any kind of relationship recognition.
Japan is likewise the only country in the region that allows post-op transsexuals to change their legal sex, if I remember correctly.
WOW, feel the love here….
Um…YAY! is about the only response I can muster.
They’re spreading HIV because they’re closeted cowards and stupid to boot?
And this is somehow my problem?
Nope.
When their straight people start dropping like flies–waitaminnit!!
Doesn’t China have the one child rule?
Maybe those in power in China aren’t really all that upset about the spread of HIV and kind of want it to thin their population.
Whatever.
“Jimmy” you are a moron! go to your focus on the family, Lick Jerry Falwell’s crusty dead ass site. Stop eating your boogars and scratching your butt, you are spreading germs!
your momma’s calling you to get off the computer, checking out “gay sites.” hurry jump off.
Ohhhhh I think that the US statistics have had it right since the beginning. HIV started with the Gay community. HIV is the natural killer of the unnatural. Get a clue, look at what the Gay community has unleashed on the world.
and they have 1/5 of world population (TOO MANY PEOPLE IN THE WORLD) this affects me, how?
Mother Nature has her ways. We are gonna die of old age, cancer, many various diseases, conditions, etc.
Sorry but tell me that the Chinese and other countries aren’t Killing their LGBT and They have Equal rights and I’ll listen.
Otherwise, They are probably mostly or supposedly “Straight” homos, that are infecting each other, etc….
I am tired of “Bearing the Cross” for all the stupid closet homos of the world! The Larry Craigs and such….
You would think that China, with their severe policies on population control, would welcome G&L people. Just goes to show that prejudice and hatred do not require a rational basis to exist.
@Jim, Communism isn’t an atheist system. It’s a system of control. Communist states oppose religion because it erodes the state’s control. Communism is anti-gay for the same reasons religion is anti-gay. It interferes with their control of the family and relationships. Take the gay variable out (or stamp it down) and it becomes easier.
I don’t get this. Communism is an atheist system. Why would or should they care if someone is gay or not? Take an angry god out of the equation, look at it as a part of the natural order and suddenly being anti-gay seems silly.