An infectious disease prevention and control expert in China says colleges there have seen a rise in the number of gay students due to what he terms a lack of proper masculine education. Lu Hongzhou, party chief of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, says the gay male community remains a sticking point in the fight against the spread of HIV, making up the majority of new infections in the city. Lu said very few men were genetically gay, but rather influenced by their environment, according to clinical research. A lack of proper education by fathers, predominant feminine characters and ‘dressing up’ by parents all lead to male hormonal degradation, according to Lu. AIDS prevention has focused on colleges that have large numbers of homosexual students, he said, adding that some young men enter the gay circle just out of curiosity, while some even consider it as a fashion, it was added. Shanghai’s health authority had trialed a free-drug-intervention-plan that called on high risk groups to take daily medication to reduce infection, though it was refused by most, Lu said, “despite medical staff clarifying that the drug had no side effects and that is has been used widely in western countries.” Consensual adult homosexual intimacy has been legal in China since 1997. Homosexuality was removed from China's list of mental illnesses in 2001.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 28th November 2015 - 6:08pm