China’s Struggle to Come Out

From Window of China:

One year after Wei Xiaogang told his parents he is gay, his mother is still trying to find him a wife.

“When I told my mother, she was shocked and cried,” he says.

She still thinks he might change if he lived with a woman.

“It is hard for her to accept,” says Wei, 33, who had been hiding his sexuality from his parents for many years beforehand.

“There was a long time of doubt and struggle before my coming out.”

When he told his parents, he had been with a male partner for several years, although they have since split.

Although homosexuality has become largely socially accepted in many Western countries, it is still immensely complicated in China. It was only in 2001 that homosexuality ceased to be officially described as a mental illness in China.

“Coming out is a big thing for Chinese homosexuals,” Wei says.

Most people still regard homosexuals as strange and the refusal of parents to accept their children’s sexual orientation is often a reason why many Chinese gays and lesbians marry, says Wei.

“About 80 percent of all Chinese gay and lesbians are living in a heterosexual relationship and marry in order to satisfy their parents.”

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