China is steadily making milestones against HIV/AIDS. During the last couple of years, the East Asian country has achieved a less than 0.1 percent of HIV/AIDS prevalence among adults. Experts, however, believed that these achievements will come to naught if the LGBT community remains ignored by the Chinese government.
According to Beijing Today, China's continued ignorance and stigma against the LGBT community makes them exposed to HIV/AIDS threats. In November, China Daily reported about the increasing rates of HIV/AIDS cases among gay men. Eighty percent of new HIV/AIDS cases in the nation are men who have sexual relations with the same sex.
Why Gay Men Are More Exposed To HIV/AIDS Risks
A study published in the National Center for Biotechnology Information found that condom use is one of the main reasons behind gay men's exposure to HIV/AIDS. Gay men in China do not practice consistent condom use, with only 56.4 percent of them using condoms unfailingly this year.
To fight this problem, the Chinese government has installed more condom vending machines in Beijing universities, but those are usually ill-maintained. Officials rolled out sexual health outreach programs that specifically target gay men as well.
A top hospital in Beijing is also known for its discrimination-free treatment and care services for HIV/AIDS patients, Women of China reported. Despite these efforts, homosexual people are still facing discrimination in China.
Access To Civil Rights Denied
The country's LGBT community does not experience equal civil rights on inheritance, joint property rights, adoption by same-sex couples, cohabitation, and monetary compensation after divorce, according to a study published in the United Nations Development Programme, or UNDP. In addition, China's censorship laws explicitly ban homosexual content in movies and television, which hampers LGBT people's acceptance in a society inherently against homosexuals.
Same-sex marriage is also not allowed in China. The national law allows transgender people to change their gender on their ID cards and household registrations, but the process to do so are difficult and are only offered to people who have had full sex-reassignment surgery. Official documents like education certificates do not allow gender change.
China's stigma and discrimination against the LGBT community aren't necessarily violent and hateful. Rather, stigma and discrimination were expressed in mild but persistent ways, which includes families, friends and colleagues disapproving of non-conforming sexual or gender practice, UNDP further reported. People are only tolerant of homosexuals if they are not publicly open about their sexual orientation and if they still abide with the society's gendered roles.
