Lesbians in China petition to donate blood
(Beijing) Lesbians in China have organized an online petition calling for gay people to be allowed to donate blood, state media reported Tuesday.
The petition, asking the government to remove a law enacted in 1998 banning the gay community from donating blood, has drawn 540 signatures from lesbians and aims to …
Tags: Aims, Beijing China, China Beijing, Donate Blood, Donating Blood, Gay Community, Gay People, Lesbians, Online Petition, Signatures, State MediaGay film festival keeps low profile Toronto Star
BEIJING–When China’s homosexual moviemakers decided to hold their fourth-ever film festival this year, they took pains to avoid confrontation with the cops.
They’d had confrontations before.
So this year, they didn’t issue any press releases. They picked a venue where they didn’t have to apply for a government permit. And they insisted on calling the event The Beijing Queer Film Festival.
“The translation of queer in Chinese is `ku er,’” explains film director Cui Zi’en. “In the Chinese language, it’s actually a less well-known word – a less provocative word than `gay.’”
The idea, Cui says, is not to wave flags in the authorities’ faces.
Yesterday, the five-day film festival opened in a village on the outskirts of Beijing without incident.
It’s no longer illegal to be gay in China: that ended in 1997.
In 2001, the Chinese Psychiatric Association delisted homosexuality as a disease. But gay books and films remained banned here in China and the gay community continues to test the limits.
Cui and other organizers hope this week’s festival goes smoothly – and doesn’t get busted. Gay film fests in the capital were shut down in 2001 and 2005, while a festival in 2007 squeaked by under the radar.
See Gay film festival keeps low profile Toronto Star
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/gay-film-fest…
China preps 1st guidelines for sex change surgery
(Beijing) China’s first medical guidelines on sex change surgery could require patients to gain police approval before the procedure, according to a posting on the Health Ministry’s Web site.
The proposed guidelines, posted Tuesday, say candidates for surgery must show an agreement from police to change their sex on their identification …
Tags: Beijing China, China Sex, Health Ministry, Medical Guidelines, Medical Sex, Police Sex, Sex Change Surgery, Sex China, Sex Surgery
