By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman
CHINA, January 15, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – China’s flagship English publication, which is completely government-run, has published an article containing three sympathetic accounts of Chinese homosexuals, and featuring a full-page photo of two men kissing each other.
The article, titled “Pride and Prejudice”, portrays homosexuals as oppressed and misunderstood, and appears to endorse their behavior. One homosexual male, Tong Ge, speaks of his marriage as a “mistake,” and discusses his first sexual encounter with another male during a work assignment in the country in the 1960s.
“At age 27, Tong went back to the city, where he was astonished to discover scores of secret places where gay men met at night, such as public parks and toilets,” the article continues. “According to Tong, the phenomenon emerged in the mid-1970s when the ‘cultural revolution’ had yet to come to an end.”
“The more you try to oppress sex, the more resistance will rise up,” the article quotes Tong as saying. He now does research on homosexuality and AIDS in China.
Two other active homosexuals, one male and one female, are also interviewed about their lives, in which they present themselves as victims of an ignorant society.
“It is my life, and it is my right to choose the lifestyle I want,” says the article’s lesbian interviewee.
The presence of the article is more evidence of an ongoing sea-change in Chinese government policy towards homosexuals. Sodomy was penalized under criminal statutes until 1997, and the diagnostic manual used by Chinese psychiatrists regarded homosexuality as a mental illness until 2002.
As late as 2005, government officials prevented an attempt to hold the first “gay cultural festival” in China, in the city of Beijing. When event organizers tried to relocate to a homosexual bar, police also shut down the bar.
However, the Chinese government is apparently reversing its stance on sodomy, instead imitating the United States and Western Europe by endorsing the practice through state-run media. Yesterday’s article in China Daily may be the most positive statement made to date about homosexuality by a government source.
According to the newspaper, China Daily is the nation’s only national daily in English. It claims to have a circulation of approximately 200,000 readers.
The Chinese government’s changing attitude towards homosexuals may in part be a result of the country’s infamous population control measures, which often involve forced abortions and even post-birth infanticides. The government continues to take active measures against those families that have more than one or two children (see recent LifeSiteNews coverage at https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/may/07052803.html). Homosexuals who are comfortable with their sexual preference are much less likely to procreate than heterosexuals.
Related Links:
“Pride and Prejudice” – WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES AND CONTENT
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-01/14/content_6390950.htm