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National Gay Hotline Opens In China

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff (May 12, 2006)

(Beijing) China's first national hotline for gays and lesbians has opened with the help of a Hong Kong-based foundation.
It will provide free information and crisis intervention. Callers use an 800 number and speak to a volunteer in either Guangzhou or Shanghai
The Chi Heng Foundation says a national service is needed as more and more gay Chinese come out. Local gay phone lines have been swamped and can no longer meet the demand.
"On the mainland, being homosexual is still very hard," Hu Zhijun, a worker at the foundation, told the English language edition of the China Daily.
"Under pressure from families and society, most homosexual people dare not reveal their sexual orientation and have to get married to someone of the opposite sex."
The new service will be manned daily.
Hu said that the hotline has 13 volunteers all who are gay. They are all college educated with degrees in medicine, psychology, law or sociology and have undergone training to work on the crisis line.
"Most of the calls we have had so far are from people who complain of social stigma and ignorance, or from those who don't understand homosexual," Hu told the paper.
It is estimated there are 48 million gays in China.
Coming out is a difficult process in the closely knit family structure of the country and the government has been criticized for not doing more for gays.
It also has been criticized in the West for lagging in HIV/AIDS education The Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS, or UNAIDS, has warned that up to 10 million people in China could be infected by 2010 without more aggressive prevention measures.

Prison For Organizing Gay Parties In China

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff (May 19, 2006)

(Beijing) A man who used the internet to organize parties for gay men to meet for sex in highly closeted China has been sentenced to a year behind bars the official China News Service reported on Friday.
The man, identified only as Zou, was arrested in Beijing. His trial, before the Chongwen District People's Court, heard that he set up a Web site called "Beijing Sky" to promote "Hot Dream Party for Cool Beijing Boys".
The parties were held at his home and when they began attracting large numbers of men neighbors complained to police.
Police raided the house last November and arrested Zou and ten other men. The China News Service reports that he told police that he provided a venue for people unable to meet through other means and charged a membership fee.
"Ten suspected criminals, all males, were engaging in illegal sex activities, " the news agency quotes police as saying. "Zou's behavior constituted a crime of "Promoting Promiscuity".
In sentencing Zou the judge said: "Although people today are gradually becoming more free to follow their sexual preferences, that doesn't mean the law will indulge them. People should choose healthy and proper life styles."
Gay life in China is mainly underground. Last week a national hotline for gays and lesbians opened with the help of a Hong Kong-based foundation.
It is estimated there are 48 million gays in China.
The government has been criticized in the West for lagging in HIV/AIDS education The Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS, or UNAIDS, has warned that up to 10 million people in China could be infected by 2010 without more aggressive prevention measures.
A report issued in March by China's Ministry of Health showed that only about 30 percent of the country's college students have a full understanding of HIV/AIDS.