Gay bar in Dali delays opening

• Source: Global Times
• [02:28 December 02 2009]
• Comments

By Zhang Lei

The grand opening of a gay bar in Dali, Yunnan Province that was set for Tuesday had to be postponed after some volunteers working with the business owner experienced public pressure to back away, the owner said Tuesday.

Bar owner Zhang Jianbo, who is a medical doctor at Dali No.2 People's Hospital, said the bar will open sooner or later, but the date was not fixed.

"Too much attention will scare away the real gay people from joining in," Zhang told the Global Times Tuesday.

Tuesday was significant since it was World AIDS Day, Zhang said, and the bar intends to be a source of information to help gays fight the disease.

The bar will offer lectures to gay people about the disease.

The media attention lavished on the bar's opening did not help to remove the social stigma about gays but caused many to stay away.

Zhang said he has never expected such strong media attention which leads to pressure on his volunteers.

"Some volunteers were mistaken for gays," he said. "They don't want to be stereotyped and mistaken."

Some of the gay people interviewed by the media are married to women and their family life have been hurt over the attention, according to Qilu Evening News.

Zhang also felt pushed. He received a text message on his phone, in which he was denounced as a foolish person and was asked to help gays get rid of "their bad habits," the Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday.

Jiang Anmin, vice director of the Dali health bureau, told the Global Times that they suspended the project in order to protect the volunteers.

"We should care about the interests of the group during intervention, especially after we tried so hard to get in touch with them," Jiang said. "We will keep a lower profile."