Shanghai landlords urged to shun same-sex couples

By Alex Donald • August 29, 2007 - 23:30

Last year, China banned foreign gay couples from adopting Chinese children in an attempt to stop an influx of foreign nationals wishing to adopt.

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New rules are being drafted in Shanghai urging landlords not to rent rooms to same-sex partners, according to Reuters.

The city's housing bureau has issued a report advocating conservative restrictions on who should and should not be allowed to rent rooms.

In addition to same-sex couples, unmarried couples were also included in the ambiguous report which does not make clear whether the new rules would merely become guidelines or be enforced by law.

Married couples, families and individuals would benefit from the recommendations if enforced.

However, many see economical as well as morally questionable flaws in the report.

Local media have denounced the plan as 'arrogant' and unjustifiably targeting the Chinese LGBT community and also the City's poorer inhabitants.

"This matter in essence… attacks the people who can least afford it" comments the Southern Metropolitan Daily.

Others point to the dubious situation that may arise when students and much needed migrant workers arrive in the city, often renting bunk beds in cramped communal rooms to save costs in a city where property prices and rents have soared in recent years.

Far from living up to its' colonial-dubbed name of 'Whore of the Orient', the People's Republic's rising status as a superpower is bringing with it conservative moral values imposed from the top down.

Last year, China banned foreign gay couples from adopting Chinese children in an attempt to stop an influx of foreign nationals wishing to adopt.

Disabled people, unmarried couples and obese people were also included on the list upon which the Chinese authorities cite a desire for children to grow up in "better conditions"

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