AIDS Spawns China’s 1st Group for Gay Men : Culture: The organization is a trailblazer in a nation, which for decades refused to admit even the possibility that such practices could exist in a socialist society.

BEIJING —  For the members of Men’s World, China’s first open group for homosexual men, the world can be a frightening place.

The search for love, or even just friendship, takes place in cold city parks or squalid public toilets. A web of lies and half-truths must be constructed to deceive family, friends and colleagues bound by strict communist morality.

And AIDS is bringing the threat of death closer with each passing month.

“Gays have no place to go in this society,” said Wan Yanhai, a researcher at the National Health Education Institute in Beijing. “Their lives are lived in the dark.”

Wan helped start the institute’s AIDS telephone hotline last April. In November, he took an even bolder step toward pulling China’s gays out of the closet and into the battle against the killer disease by organizing the country’s first open group for homosexual men.

“At first, we had no thought of organizing. We just wanted to get some information about AIDS out to the people who need it,” Wan said.

“Later, we realized that we had to have some place where gays could come to talk and to find out more.”

The result is Men’s World, an informal group that gathers on occasional Sundays to trade stories, make contacts and listen to lectures about safe sex.

Men’s World is a trailblazer in China, which for decades refused to admit even the possibility that homosexuality could exist in socialist society.

“Homosexuality is neither legal or illegal in China,” Wan said. “The government said it didn’t exist, so there was no need to make laws about it. It is completely outside society.”

Beijing’s blanket taboo on homosexuality keeps it firmly underground. Vice patrols harass gays on the pretext of enforcing public morality, while the threat of certain and complete social ostracism makes almost all homosexuals live in desperate fear of discovery.

The health education institute says incomplete statistics indicate that between 1% and 4% of Chinese have had homosexual relationships--a percentage slightly lower than that found in many Western countries.

But the real extent of homosexuality in China is almost impossible to discover. In initial efforts to survey homosexual behavior in China’s capital, researchers were forced to turn to police stations, where men hauled in for public indecency were quizzed about their attitudes and sexual practices.

“That was the wrong move. It built up a feeling of animosity,” Wan said. “We knew we had to do something different.”

Men’s World is their answer, and Wan said it is unlikely the group would ever have started if not for the danger of AIDS.

The disease, which has devastated gay communities in the West, is making fast inroads in China. More than 900 people have already tested positive for the HIV virus that causes AIDS, and health officials say the number infected is probably far higher.

China’s government campaign against AIDS is slowly gaining steam. Official conferences, organized with help from the United Nations, have helped coordinate policies toward the disease, which so far is being spread mainly by intravenous drug use.

But while medical experts and government cadres debate the fine points of public health policy, China’s gay men have remained in the dark and at risk--unrecognized by the government, harassed by police and afraid of the truth.

Wan said surveys disclosed that only about 6% of gay men in Beijing had ever used a condom during sex, and almost none regularly took that precaution. Of the six Chinese HIV carriers discovered in the city, two acknowledged being gay.

“Knowledge about AIDS is still very limited among homosexuals,” said a man surnamed Ye, who frequents the parks and bathrooms where gays gather in Beijing.

“Some people are not educated. Some people simply will not accept education.”

Ye, like most of China’s homosexuals, is married. He has one child and a respectable job. But he is getting involved in Men’s World because he feels it has a crucial job to do.

“The most important thing we can do is health education now. Gays here don’t use condoms, they don’t worry about multiple partners. It’s all part of the secrecy.”

Ye and others have fanned out to gay meeting places throughout Beijing to put up stickers with the AIDS hotline number and distribute invitations to Men’s World activities.

“Some people still refuse to come. They think that when they get here, the police will simply lock the doors and begin questioning everybody,” Ye said.

Wan said there was little danger of that. Despite initial misgivings, police have decided to cooperate with the institute.

Recent documents distributed by police have instructed officers to be more lenient in the treatment of homosexuals, stressing the need for education rather than punishment.

The biggest threat to Men’s World is financial.

Despite pleas for funding from the World Health Organization and China’s Ministry of Public Health, money has not been forthcoming for a project devoted to homosexuals.

“We haven’t got anything. We need at least $100,000 if we are really going to get this thing going--money to buy condoms for free distribution and to organize more activities around the country,” Wan said.

Analysts say part of the problem lies with senior health officials, who must sign off on major international grants for anti-AIDS work in the country.

“The issue of homosexuality is so controversial, it will never get supported,” said one consultant with a major international organization in Beijing. “But Wan is determined to keep doing what he is doing.

“He is pushing the limits, pushing the edge of acceptance out further and further.”