Helpline for gays launched in China

Volunteers in in Guangzhou and Shanghai are jointly setting up a helpline to provide help and advice to gays and lesbians (China Daily report) on a variety of subjects of interest to them as a community. The helpline is under the auspices of Hong Kong-based Chi Heng Foundation whose representative Hu Zhijun said:

"On the mainland, being homosexual is still very hard. Under pressure from families and society, most homosexual people dare not reveal their sexual orientation and have to get married to someone of the opposite sex."

- the nationwide hotline is available on 800-988-1929. The very fact that an article like this, on a service for the lesbigay community, can be published in China in a publication such as China Daily shows just how much China is changing, even if many of these changes probably remain somewhat superficial so far as the bulk of the population is concerned.