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Tuesday, 24 May, 2005 Pink China comes out of shadows By Louisa Lim BBC News, China 
It is only four years since China dropped homosexuality from its list of psychiatric disorders. Now, gay activists in China are using the internet and other high-tech methods to try to create gay communities. But even as China's gays come tiptoeing out of the closet, they admit they are fighting an uphill battle. At a recent meeting in Beijing, a group of woman were discussing gender identity. This kind of open salon for lesbians is relatively new in China, a product of the internet generation. "If we didn't have the internet to unite people together, the salons, the bars, the discos could not be there. So the internet is a very, very important thing to lesbian culture," said 23-year-old Sylvia, attending the meeting with her girlfriend. "You have a brand new way for you to find friends, find girlfriends, and start your new life, because before the internet appeared, everybody thought they were the only person in the world and they couldn't find any other people like themselves," she said. But gay websites exist in a grey area, with some official interference. "Some gay websites are closed by the service provider, and sometimes they'll give you other reasons, like not really gay-related, but actually the real reason is the sensitive gay content," said Xiao Xian, a lesbian activist. "We're still testing the water, like what we can do, what is being allowed. So the government didn't have a clear rule put down on paper. Rather, it's unwritten rules, so you have to test it, you have to see what you can do," she said.
A gay and lesbian film festival attended by more than 100 people was recently held in a small room in a disused factory — a second attempt, after the authorities refused to allow them to hold the event on a university campus. The films shown were mostly shot on the mainland, but most had never been seen in China before. One of the films — a bittersweet gay love story between a man and a Martian — was directed by Cui Ze'en, a professor at Beijing Film Academy, who has been forbidden from teaching for 15 years since he came out of the closet. He believes that the authorities feel as threatened by sexual dissidents as political dissidents. "They're the same taboo," he said. "Homosexuality represents a different cultural politics. Being gay is a kind of body politics, which is entirely rejected in our system, because in our country, politics is all about being the same. But gay people are different." Drag queens At a smoky bar in southern China I caught up with the country's underground gay scene. As disco lights flashed red, green and blue and music blared, a transvestite on stage strutted his stuff in a red bikini with gold tassels. One of the performers was 28-year-old Yuan Bing, a slender boy from the country in a white diaphanous dress. He discovered as a child that he liked dressing up in girls' clothes. He said the audience reaction to his drag act was generally positive, but it could get nasty. "When we are performing, sometimes customers really react against us. They simply can't bear us and they verbally attack us. We love what we do and we sometimes get angry with this response," he said. Every person here has their own story of heartbreak and discrimination. "I don't think I can tell my parents. If other people found out, my parents would lose face," said Yuan Bing. It is a familiar, sad story for China's sexual dissidents In his stage persona, Yuan Bing braves public discrimination and official disapproval every day. Yet in his private life he still hides behind a wall of silence. |
Monday, 16 May, 2005 Fear and loathing in gay India
This is the first in a series of articles about the lives of gay people in South Asia. She is a qualified computer professional and works in a government job, but has been forced to live a double life for many years now. At work, she uses her true name. Outside, she uses a nom de guerre, heading a support group for lesbians, bisexuals and transgender communities. She lives with her partner — who lives a similar double life — in an apartment in the eastern city of Calcutta they bought together with a bank loan after fighting for one for six years. "When we went to the bank for the first time to get a loan, I was told I could not put down my partner as a co-applicant. It had to be a spouse. Finally, last year, the bank relented. I put down my partner as a friend," says Malobika, 41. 'Unnatural offence'
It has been a long, strange trip towards coming out of the closet for lesbians like Malobika in conservative India, where same-sex relationships are illegal and almost blasphemous. The 145-year-old colonial Indian Penal Code clearly describes a same sex relationship as an "unnatural offence". In a largely patriarchal society, lesbians bear the brunt of social ostracisation and the law more than gay men. In many states, lesbians have taken their lives after facing harassment at home and outside. Malobika and her friends have been luckier — "We are educated and have a class advantage," as one of them says. Born to a mechanical engineer father and a homemaker mother, Malobika discovered her sexuality when she was 17. Some 18 years later, when her parents were frantically looking around for a suitable groom, she finally told them the truth. "My mother said she did not understand what I was saying.
"It took some time for the whole thing to sink in," she said, sitting in a smoky teashop in downtown Calcutta. Five years ago, Malobika along with five other lesbians started up a support group called Sappho named after the Greek lyric poet. Anguished world The helpline has become their window to the dark world of Indian lesbians. Most of the women who call in say they have been forcibly married off by their parents. When they tell the truth, they are thrown out of their homes by their spouses, parents and relatives. Most of these hapless women suffer from extremely low esteem and say that something is gravely wrong with them. "Am I normal? Am I like other women? Tell me please," asks an anguished caller on the Sappho helpline. A panicky man asks, "My wife says she is a lesbian. Can you please cure her?"
Homophobia, say support groups, is acute in India. Malobika says when parents find out — or the girl tells them — the truth, they run to the doctor. "The doctor typically tells the girl to swim, cook and knit. 'That way she will become a girl again,' they say. "The parents then usually take the girl home and shut her up, cutting her off from the outside world." Many girls from the villages escape to the big city after being thrown out of their homes. Greater acceptance
In big cities like Calcutta, there is slightly more acceptance of same sex relationships these days. As in other parts of the world, India has seen a growing gay and lesbian movement. "These days, there is a greater openness about the gay community in the big cities. But homophobia is still pretty rampant," says Rafiquel Haque, 31, a theatre actor and gay rights activist. This means that when bright, young men like Rafiquel decide to come out of the closet and begin talking to the media, they lose some friends. One reason is that gay behaviour is also regarded as sexually predatory. Rafiquel says he was friends with a "liberal" artist couple and their only son — till they saw him on a television show on gay issues. "The moment they came to know I was gay they stopped talking. They stopped their son from meeting me. His mother told me, 'If my son becomes like you, I will commit suicide'." Coming out of the closet, however, is easier now: the eastern West Bengal state alone has some nine gay and lesbian support groups.
Rafiquel, who was instrumental in setting up one in 1993, says they reached out to 5,000 gay men in the state within three years. Two years ago, he organised a same sex mardi gras in Calcutta. Since then it has become a regular yearly event. Plays on gay issues are staged, members debate community issues, and books and journals are sold at this merry fortnight-long carnival. It climaxes with a colourful march through the streets of Calcutta — last year as many 300 gays, lesbians and transgender people participated in the march. But life is still not easy even for a gay man in India — he usually faces derision at work, and struggles to find a partner. Most gay men usually cruise darkly lit streets and unkempt parks and often get picked up by police looking for bribes. "It's not easy to meet a partner. I still don't have a lasting partner. It can be very lonely sometimes," says Pavan Dhal, 36, who heads a support group. "There's also a lot of risky sexual behaviour. It's not a very happy situation that way". |
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Thursday, 19 May, 2005 Sri Lanka's gays share their journey
Throughout South Asia, homosexuality has been a taboo subject. But there are signs in some areas that gay people are now becoming more open in their behaviour. In the second of a series of articles from the region, the BBC's Chloe Arnold looks at gay life in Sri Lanka.
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