China’s official Xinhua news agency has reported that the first government-backed gay bar in China opened on Saturday with little fanfare following a three-week delay due to intense media interest.
More than 60 people, mostly gay men, and 10 volunteer attended the opening ceremony at the bar located in the city of Dali in southwestern Yunnan Province.
The bar was originally scheduled to open on December 1, World AIDS Day but was delayed as the bar's owner Zhang Jianbo told Xinhua he wanted to protect the privacy of the volunteers and customers after intensive media coverage.
The 36-year-old owner is also director of the Dermatological Department of the Dali Municipal No. 2 People's Hospital and founder of the Dali HIV/AIDS Prevention and Health Association, a non-governmental organisation.
Volunteers from HIV/AIDS related NGOs will be stationed at the bar to provide workshops and safer sex material to educate gay men about HIV/AIDS.
Zhang was quoted as saying that the funds for opening the bar mainly came from the Dali HIV/AIDS Prevention and Health Association, and two international NGOs. The Beijing Youth Newspaper reported that half of the 120,000 yuan (US$17,650) allocated by the Dali Municipal Health Bureau to the No 2 hospital this year for AIDS prevention programmes was used to set up the bar.
Health Minister Chen Zhu told the media that sex among gay and bisexual men accounted for 32 percent of the total HIV/AIDS transmission in China.
According to Xinhua, a total of 319,877 people in China had been registered HIV positive, including 102,323 AIDS patients and 49,845 deaths, as of October 31, according to statistics released on a national AIDS control meeting. But the actual numbers could be much higher. The health ministry and the UNAIDS estimate that China will have 560,000 to 920,000 living HIV carriers, with 97,000 to 112,000 AIDS patients by the end of 2009.
The minimum charge at the bar is a bottle of Coca Cola at 5 yuan (US$0.70). The bar is located near the Dali Hotel in Xiaguan Town and will open daily from 3 pm to midnight.
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Reader's Comments
可悲的是当地的无知新闻工作者竟然不顾自愿工作者的隐私,并给这位尽责的医生及防艾工作领导人造成诸多不便.这样的做法把工作者及使用者推倒在舆论的压力下.
Dr Cheung of the prevention of AIDS program is well worth over public health Bureau of imitation. UNAIDS and all major anti-AIDS authorities and she will be accepted, the official community with direct communication and comrade sponsorship within the community the non-government organizations can be effective anti-AIDS. of the implementation of the project fully this principle, the local gay community is in urgent need of the prevention and relief of the pipeline, facilitate the Exchange, and encourage the community's participation in. as a result, the Crown will be able to improve the local gay community for sex education and degree of acceptance test on a regular basis.
Sadly the local city, is actually ignorant zhurnalist mockeryof volunteers of privacy, and asidethe anti-AIDS efforts, and a lot of inconvenience caused by the leaders of the work of such an arrangement the. workers and users can bring down under pressure from public opinion.
hoping this will happen more and more in many other cities in China.
be prepared to be proud, gays in China! :-)
It's unethical for reporters across China to tactlessly put this bar in the spotlight and consequently subject its founder, management and customers to undue publicity. Do they not understand what is respect for privacy? This project was created to provide a discreet environment for closeted gays to come out to socialise with others in the gay community and the local counter-STD agency headed by Dr Zhang, the founder of the car. If successful, this bar had the potential to educate more gays about safer sex and encourage them to be screened regularly for HIV. But owing to the imprudence of these reporters, this bar can no longer provide that kind of environment. It's destined to fail.
Dr Zhang should have anticipated this outcome. The government shouldn't be directly involved in opening a gay bar. His idea of opening a gay bar to provide a discreet and safe environment for gays in that town is good. But it should have been privately funded and be moderately profitable. I mean there are so many gay bars in China which are doing quite well, making a decent profit and serving the purpose of providing a discreet and safe environment for gays. We see these in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and many other countries. So why complicate a simple project which could have been very successful by involving the government and, hence, become unique and, hence, newsworthy?
The government should be involved. But not in opening the bar. It should be involved with providing the counter-STD components. For example, it could sponsor anonymous HIV screening, counselling, brochures, seminars, training of volunteers.
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