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"Pressure to conform" means millions of gay men in China marry women

gaywrites:

New estimates from a local “expert” suggest that as many as 16 million gay men in China are in heterosexual marriages.

The expert in question is Professor Zhang Bei-chuan at Qingdao University and he’s an expert on HIV/AIDS, so how this makes him qualified to make generalizations about gay relationships I’m not sure. Either way, word about his guess has spread and Chinese individuals are reacting.

Not surprisingly, the estimated main cause is the pressure to conform to social norms or the fear of hurting family’s feelings. An interesting take from the Asia One article:

Xiao Dong, a 36-year-old gay man, who heads a civil organization in HIV/AIDS prevention and control, said: “Zhang’s estimation is unsubstantiated and I even feel it’s pointless to research the issue.”

Whether to get married or not is too complicated a question among the gay population and it is almost impossible to project the number of married gay men by simple calculation, he said.

“To put gays’ wives under the spotlight might cause more public misunderstanding or even hatred toward the gay population, which does not help defuse existing social discrimination against them,” he added.

Does the professor’s guess sound justified? Is there a possible benefit in pointing out trends like this? Will it make discrimination worse or improve conditions, or neither?

3 months ago - 34

Syrian Forces ‘Kill Hundreds In Homs’ #Syria

3 months ago - 1

Saudi police 'stopped' fire rescue

Saudi Arabia’s religious police stopped schoolgirls from leaving a blazing building because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress, according to Saudi newspapers.

In a rare criticism of the kingdom’s powerful “mutaween” police, the Saudi media has accused them of hindering attempts to save 15 girls who died in the fire on Monday.

About 800 pupils were inside the school in the holy city of Mecca when the tragedy occurred.

3 months ago - 1

You are the solution to issues; don’t rely on talking heads.

3 months ago - 1

Arab League urges Security Council to take 'rapid' action on Syria

Updated at 345 p.m. ET: Western and Arab nations launched a major diplomatic offensive at the U.N. on Tuesday in hopes of overcoming Russia’s opposition to a resolution demanding that Syrian President Bashar Assad relinquish power, The Associated Press reported.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the British and French foreign ministers traveled to New York for the afternoon Security Council session on the situation in Syria.

Nabil Elaraby, the chief of the Arab League, called on the Security Council to take ‘rapid and decisive action’ on Syria, Reuters reported

“Realizing the hopes of the Syrian people is in your hands,” Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Jabr Al Thani told council members, asking them to adopt the resolution, based on the Arab League’s peace plan for the country. “It is part of your responsibility under the (U.N.) charter,” he said, according to The Associated Press.

'Assad's family attempts to escape Syria'

Sources tell Egyptian daily that Syrian security forces tried to help smuggle Syrian president’s family out of country.

By REUTERS

Syrian security forces attempted to smuggle Syrian President Bashar Assad’s family out of the country, sources from the Syrian opposition told Al-Masry-Al-Youm Sunday evening, according to a report published by the Egyptian daily.

According to the report, security forces tried to aid the president’s wife Asma Assad, to escape via Damascus, along with his children, mother and cousin.

3 months ago - 1

Exclusive: Leaked Syria observers' report details failings of mission

Some were too old, too ill for their task. Others quarreled over reimbursements for hotel accommodations, or refused orders to carry out their mission.

Simply put, many of the 166 Arab observers parachuted into Syria on Dec. 24 to document the widening violence were utterly incapable of enduring the rigors of life in a country roiled by social upheaval and conflict, according to an internal account of their work.

“Regrettably, some observers thought that their visit to Syria was for pleasure,” wrote Gen. Mohamed Ahmed Moustafa Al-Dabi, the chief of the Arab League monitoring mission. “In some instances, experts who were nominated were not qualified for the job, did not have prior experience, and were not able to shoulder the responsibility.”

On Jan. 18, Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby ordered the suspension of the organization’s observer mission, its first major experiment in human rights monitoring. He claimed that the escalation of violence had undercut its ability to do its job.

But a confidential account of the organization’s mission, signed by the monitor’s controversial chief and obtained by Turtle Bay, shows that the Arab monitors were hobbled from the beginning by a shortage of equipment — and by what Al-Dabi describes as a ferocious Syrian media disinformation campaign against the monitors and him personally. “The credibility of the mission has been undermined in the minds of Arab and foreign viewers,” he wrote