Contest aims to boost community’s confidence in country where homosexuality was classed as illness until 2001

Winners of Mr. Gay China

INTERVIEW VIDEO LINK http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2010/jan/11/china-gay-pageant

There’s a swimwear round and a talent section where contestants can show off their singing and dancing. But organisers insist the contest to be held this Friday is a serious business. It is China‘s first gay pageant.

The event is a striking sign of how far attitudes in China have changed and of gay people’s increasing confidence. Gay sex was illegal until 1997. Homosexuality was classed as a mental illness for four years after that. Now an emerging gay community is busting stereotypes.

“We are intelligent, we’re professionals, we’re gorgeous – and we’re gay,” said contestant Emilio Liu, from Inner Mongolia. “I want the audience to know there are a whole bunch of people like us living in China. It’s a wonderful life and it’s not hidden any more.”

These days there are gay support groups and websites helping people to explore their sexuality and meet potential partners. There are gay venues in most major cities; last year, the first government-backed bar opened in Kunming, in south-western Yunnan. Shanghai held the first Gay Pride week and in Beijing, campaigners called for same-sex marriages.

Source: guardian.co.uk

Contest aims to boost community’s confidence in country where homosexuality was classed as illness until 2001 INTERVIEW VIDEO LINK http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2010/jan/11/china-gay-pageant There’s a swimwear round and a talent section where contestants can show off their singing and dancing. But organisers insist the contest to be held this Friday is a serious business. It is China‘s first [...]

The first-ever gay pagenat is to be held in China

BEIJING — A gay pageant is to be held for the first time in China, where homosexuality remains largely hidden, to crown the man who will represent the Asian nation at a worldwide contest, organisers said Thursday.

The Mr Gay China pageant will take place on January 15 at a club in Beijing, ahead of the Mr Gay World competition in Norway in February, Ben Zhang, founder of gay media and PR website gayographic.org, told AFP.

“There will be sportswear and swimsuit segments, a Q&A session, and a panel of judges will select the winner based on overall performance,” Zhang said.

The pageant will be open to anyone who lives in China — local or foreign, and contestants can apply online, he said.

“Being homosexual, in general we get a lot of discrimination everywhere, so we are not going to discriminate against any contestants,” Zhang said.

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Source : AFP

BEIJING — A gay pageant is to be held for the first time in China, where homosexuality remains largely hidden, to crown the man who will represent the Asian nation at a worldwide contest, organisers said Thursday. The Mr Gay China pageant will take place on January 15 at a club in Beijing, ahead of [...]

By Guo Anfei in Dali and Shan Juan in Beijing (China Daily)

The idea was simple: Set up a bar to attract gay men and then use it to distribute information on AIDS/HIV prevention.

The media loved the idea – but all the attention kept the gay men away.

“They (gay men) refused to show up at the opening for fear of media exposure and potential discrimination,” said Zhang Jianbo, the bar’s founder and a local AIDS doctor in Dali, Yunnan province.

The bar, partially funded by the Dali Health Bureau in collaboration with two local anti-AIDS NGOs that Zhang heads, was meant to facilitate outreach efforts targeting groups facing a high HIV risk, particularly gay men.

Its opening was set for yesterday, World AIDS Day.

Zhang said intense media attention surprised him a lot.

“Had I known it, I would not have told the media,” he said.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Guo Anfei in Dali and Shan Juan in Beijing (China Daily) The idea was simple: Set up a bar to attract gay men and then use it to distribute information on AIDS/HIV prevention. The media loved the idea – but all the attention kept the gay men away. “They (gay men) refused to show [...]

City of Dali

BEIJING, Nov 30 (Reuters Life!) – A Chinese city with one of the nation’s highest rates of AIDS has opened a government-funded gay bar in an outreach effort that has stirred debate over the use of taxpayers’ money.

The health department in Dali, a picturesque city on a lake in southwestern Yunnan province, funded the bar to reach out to China’s increasingly open gay community. Dali is one of the 10 cities in China most affected by AIDS.

Same-sex transmission accounts for about one-third of new HIV infections in China, the minister of health said this month.

“Some readers think that it’s a waste of taxpayer money, or an indirect endorsement of homosexual behaviour,” the Beijing News said in an opinion piece on Monday, citing letters to the editor after it ran an article on the bar over the weekend.

“They think if there were another way to reach out to the gay community, it wouldn’t be necessary to open a bar.”

Founder Zhang Jianbo hopes that the bar will be a public gathering place for gay men, especially from rural villages, who used to gather in a patch of woods near the historic town.

The bar offers sex education and free condoms, in addition to companionship, Zhang said in an interview with the newspaper. Read the rest of this entry »

BEIJING, Nov 30 (Reuters Life!) – A Chinese city with one of the nation’s highest rates of AIDS has opened a government-funded gay bar in an outreach effort that has stirred debate over the use of taxpayers’ money. The health department in Dali, a picturesque city on a lake in southwestern Yunnan province, funded the [...]

Mainland China’s Lou Ye poses in Hong Kong Friday, Nov. 20, 2009. The prominent Chinese director banned by Beijing on Friday brought his new gay romance to Hong Kong for what is likely the last of a handful of screenings on his home soil. In 2006, Lou Ye was banned from shooting movies for five years after he screened “Summer Palace” at the Cannes Film Festival without government approval. But the 45-year-old director defied the ban, secretly shooting the love story “Spring Fever” with small, digital cameras in the eastern city Nanjing last year. He also entered it at Cannes earlier this year, where it won best screenplay in May. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Mainland China’s Lou Ye poses in Hong Kong Friday, Nov. 20, 2009. The prominent Chinese director banned by Beijing on Friday brought his new gay romance to Hong Kong for what is likely the last of a handful of screenings on his home soil. In 2006, Lou Ye was banned from shooting movies for five [...]