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Gay Internet show to debut in China

HONG KONG (AP) — A Chinese web site was set to launch this week with what its producer describes as the country’s first show to focus on gay issues and the first with an openly gay host.
The weekly, hour-long Internet TV show “Tongxing Xianglian,” or “Connecting Homosexuals,” was set to debut on April 12 on www.phoenixtv.com, producer Gang Gang said in a phone interview with the Associated Press.
The site is run by the same media company that runs the Phoenix satellite TV station. Gang said clips from the online show will be aired on the broadcaster. Gang said while gays have appeared on Chinese TV shows, this will be the first show to focus on gay issues and the first with an openly gay host, AIDS activist Didier Zheng. The new show will explore homosexuality from legal, parental and sociological perspectives, dealing with issues like gay marriage, Gang said. The program will also feature a friend-matching segment.
It remains to be seen if the new show will face censorship. Though the communist government promotes Internet use, it has also set up an extensive surveillance and filtering system to prevent Chinese residents from accessing material considered obscene or politically subversive.

China's first gay chat show goes live on the Internet

DISCRIMINATION

Since Mao Zedong rule, when homosexuals were persecuted and imprisoned, China has slowly become more accepting, opening support hotlines for gays and le***ians, and offering free tests for sexually transmitted diseases in recent years.

"China is more and more open. In big cities, there are many gay groups participating in all sorts of activities," Gang said.

"Of course, discrimination remains ... The kind of pressure on gay people in China is different to the pressure in Western countries," Gang said.

"In the West, it is usually pressure brought by religion. In China, it is usually family and neighbours and peers."

Gang, who said his parents would be "very angry" if they knew he was producing "Tongxing", said the show's content would be modified according to viewer's reactions.

"Of course, it will not change some people's attitudes toward homosexuality, but we hope that it might teach them not to take issue with their family members' choices."

In episode one, this meant confronting misconceptions, ignorance and, at times, ugly prejudice conveyed in Internet posts on discussion boards and text messages.

Qiao Qiao heatedly responded to an anonymous Internet poster who said gay people were "dirty" and "freaks."

"When you say such a thing it attacks people, it attacks me," she said.

While frank and open, the panellists were more polite than confronting, steering conversation toward relationships and identity, rather than sex.

"As a woman who enjoys looking at beautiful women on the street, does that mean I'm homosexual?" was typical of the questions posted by Internet users.

Having promised experts and celebrity guests, Zou Ming, PhoenixTV.com vice president, said the show's content would remain mainstream and unlikely to shock.

"Online we can be a bit freer than on television," Zhou said. "But we don't want our viewers to think gay people are abnormal. This would cause a backlash and we don't want that."