For Chinese gays, 'coming out' is a family affair
For Chinese gays, 'coming out' is a family affair
- When Piao Chunmei's son told her he was gay, she reacted the way many Chinese parents do, sleepless and crying for days due to the lingering shame of same sex relationships in China.
But she eventually accepted her son and is now part of an expanding network of gays and their parents who help other families cope with the stress of coming out in a country which until 2001 classified homosexuality as a mental illness.
Deep-seated cultural expectations for each generation to produce a male heir -- heightened by China's "one-child policy", which expanded to two in 2015 -- added to the pressure to conform. But a new generation is more willing to take a stand on their sexuality, despite what their relatives may think.
- When Piao Chunmei's son told her he was gay, she reacted the way many Chinese parents do, sleepless and crying for days due to the lingering shame of same sex relationships in China.
But she eventually accepted her son and is now part of an expanding network of gays and their parents who help other families cope with the stress of coming out in a country which until 2001 classified homosexuality as a mental illness.
Deep-seated cultural expectations for each generation to produce a male heir -- heightened by China's "one-child policy", which expanded to two in 2015 -- added to the pressure to conform. But a new generation is more willing to take a stand on their sexuality, despite what their relatives may think.