Survey: Most 'gay wives' suffer abuse
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E-mail Xinhua, October 24, 2013
Most Chinese women who unwittingly marry gay men are subject to emotional abuse from their husbands and want their rights legally protected, a survey has found.
Research led by renowned Chinese sexologist Zhang Beichuan interviewed nearly 150 women.
The women surveyed are or were married to a gay or bisexual man, or are in an unmarried relationship with a gay or bisexual man.
The survey found that 70 percent of the women suffered long-term emotional abuse in their relationship — principally, their partner's lack of sexual interest in them — while 20 percent endured repeated beatings.
The survey found 90 percent of the women developed symptoms of depression, 40 percent have experienced strong suicidal thoughts and 10 percent have made suicide attempts.
Some 80 percent of the women said they had been "seriously harmed" by their relationship and 90 percent sought legal protection.
Nearly 40 of the women reported symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases.
And of the 30 who had been tested for HIV, two discovered that they were infected with the virus.
"'Gay wives' often painstakingly conceal their identity to avoid stigma; therefore, it was hard to obtain samples for our survey," Zhang said.
"As far as I know, this is the first quantitative research on 'gay wives' in the country," Zhang added.
In China, most gay men choose to marry and have children due to pressure from their parents and social traditions.
Many Chinese believe continuing a family's bloodline is an inescapable obligation for a man.
Previous studies suggested nearly 90 percent of Chinese gay men are married to or intend to marry heterosexual women.
Zhang called for gay men not to be bound to traditional marriage values and for them to show greater awareness of equality to stop hurting women they are involved with.
This comes against the backdrop of increasing tolerance toward homosexuality among the Chinese public.
Homosexuality was removed from the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders in 2001.
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