Fridae

This week saw a number of the Chinese LGBT community reject the fairly common practice of sham marriages, in which a LGBT person enters into a marriage with someone of the opposite sex to appease family members.

In the social media campaign, LGBT have been uploading selfies and declaring that they will not marry a straight person. Several parents of LGBT have also uploaded photos declaring that they will not push their children into sham marriages.

China’s sham marriages have received a fair amount of press attention both in local and international media in the last few months. Recent local media reports had painted gay men entering into straight marriages despite their sexuality in a bad light and highlighted the suffering of women who found themselves married to homosexuals.

The online campaign was initiated by LGBT rights group Pflag China and spokesman  Zhou Ying told the BBC they had come up with the idea after noticing greater discussion in the media and online on gay rights and the issue of marriages in recent weeks.

One participant, known as Peng Peng, posted a photo of himself with words saying: "I'm not willing to pretend for others, no matter how big the pressures are, I still want to be my true self, and so I use this campaign to take a stand."

"Many homosexuals because of various pressures get forced into marriages of convenience with straight people, or even real marriages,” Peng Peng said of sham marriages.

Kenneth Cheung, founder of LGBT rights group Rainbow China, told the BBC that he “hopes that when straight people see this, they would understand that the issue of LGBT rights closely affects them too, and thus garner more support for marriage equality."