Gov't Sponsored Gay Bars in China - to stop AIDs

[WildcatCC]

Who would have thought? Interesting article.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091202/ap_on_re_as/as_china_gay_bar

[Ann]

According to an article in The Telegraph, the Chinese government has already shut this place. Hmmm....


Well, of course it was too “right-on” to be last long. The volunteers who were going to run the bar have now all mysteriously quit and the Health ministry has nixed the project before it even opened. A spokesman refused to comment.

[komnaes]

It's all a show... despite all the economic development and some level of improvement in social justice (and very much all traces of socialism have been eliminated in reality), it's still a dictatorship.

Sexual transmission, through homo- or heterosexual contacts, is just half the story. The bigger AIDS (at least from a humanist perspective) dieaster that the Chinese government is trying to hide is the high level of transmission through hundreds of "blood donation centers" in poor parts of the country. Many poor folks were convinced to sell blood in those clinics (for USD15 each time for as much blood they can draw from a person without killing him/her) and got infected through contaminated needles.

It's estimated that thousands each year were infected this way for many years and it's still going on in some villages where people are poor and uneducated. And not only those suffering have not received any compensations and are not getting any help from the government (mainly local officials desperately trying to cover these mishaps), many activists and volunteers that have been trying to help are prosecuted, threatened with physical violence (by local officials) or both.

One of the most well known activists Hu Jia who has been helping those villagers for over 15 years has been imprisoned since 2008.

However, some HIV groups organized by gays are indeed being tolerated but only if they remain small and somewhat invisible. Any "effects" to educate and help have to come from government, which officials can control through their overwhelming propaganda machine. No dissident that doesn't follow the official line will be allowed.