Government-backed gay bar forced to postpone opening

China's first government-backed bar catering to homosexual men was forced to postpone its World AIDS Day opening on December 1 due to excessive attention from the media and critics, the South China Morning Post reported. The bar in Dali, Yunnan province was funded in part by the Dali Health Bureau as a meeting place for local gay men and an education center where free condoms and safe sex education could be distributed. The Ministry of Health recently reported that the incidence of AIDS among gay men had reached 32% in China. The bar initiative, led by Dr Zhang Jianbo, founder of the Dali HIV/AIDS Health Care Promotion Association, is one measure to promote safer sex among gay men. However, journalists and camera crews at the bar on the proposed opening day scared away many volunteer workers, some of whom feared rejection from friends and families if they were labeled as homosexual. The local health bureau chief denied the government's role in funding or building the bar.

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