Increasingly active gay and lesbian community

Sam said that these days the environment is more relaxed. Younger gays and lesbians no longer need to conceal their sexual orientation from their work colleagues and friends.

The Chinese gay and lesbian movement started in Beijing. Starting in the 1990s, activists began to organize open gay and lesbian activities.

But in the 1990s their activities were often disrupted. A planned discussion on AIDS in a public park had to be called off. And during the 1995 World Conference on Women in 1995, lesbians from home and abroad organized a dance party at the Nightman Dance Hall only to find the dance floor flooded with plainclothes policemen.

In 1998 the Beijing lesbian community held a meeting at the Dajue Temple in west Beijing. The meeting was held in secret, every one was very careful, and it turned out a great success.

In October 1998, lesbians held a meeting in the basement of a bar in Haidian District. More than forty women took part, including several from Hong Kong and Taiwan. In the same year, a Beijing lesbian group was formed. Starting with less than 10 members, the group soon opened a lesbian hotline and launched the magazine Sky.

In 2005 Sam came to Beijing from Hunan. She was depressed by the number of freak stories about gays and lesbians still appearing in the press, and decided to deliver a counterblast. At the end of 2005 she launched the magazine les+. At the beginning it was just a small brochure, but has turned into a bi-monthly magazine with readers both at home and abroad.

The magazine with its bold and rich content is a reflection of the increasingly visible place of lesbians in society. Gays and lesbians no longer have to meet underground. They have found a public space of their own. Young gays and lesbians are bold enough to disclose their sexual orientation in public. They are doing what they like.

But it is not always plain sailing. Cui Zi'en is a gay artist. When he was teaching at Beijing Film Academy, he came out as gay. He thought that tolerance of homosexuality had grown. But even in the artistic environment of the Beijing Film Academy he was shunned. "I wasn't allowed to teach for years and my salary remained lower than my colleagues'. All because I was gay," said Cui.

In 2005 Cui Zi'en planned China's first gay cultural festival but it was cancelled due to "security problems". Cui said "the space for gays and lesbians still has an invisible boundary. It is becoming more flexible. You just have to keep pushing at the limits. You don't know what the result will be until you try."

It remains true that many gays and lesbians live marginalized lives - their activities limited to bars, bath-houses and cruising areas.

Li Yinhe, a sociologist who advocates legalization of same-sex marriage, said, “Recreational activities, volunteer organizations, gay and lesbian bars, and activists' efforts to promote equal rights for gays and lesbians within and outside the gay community, are helping to gradually improve the lives of gays and lesbians.

Last year Li and an American NGO conducted a survey on the acceptance of homosexuality. The encouraging result was that 90 percent of residents in China's big cities believe gays and lesbians should have equal employment opportunities.

"Actually China seems to be steering a middle road, neither strongly opposing homosexuality nor positively supporting the rights and interests of gays and lesbians," said Xiao Xian. She thinks the Chinese government is adopting a wait-and-see attitude.

(China.org.cn by Zhang Ming'ai, March 6, 2009)