Compiled by Howard Israel
S/he Said
"There may be as many as 16 million women on the Chinese mainland who are married to homosexual men. Due to traditional family values in China, about 90 percent of homosexual men get married because of pressure to conform. Their wives are struggling to cope and their plight should be recognized."
-Professor Zhang Bei-chuan, an authority on AIDS and HIV at Qingdao University, in an article titled "Millions of wives wed to gay men: expert," about a new report claims that as many as 16 million Chinese women are married to gay men, in the state-run newspaper, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn, Feb. 03.
"(The professor's) estimation is unsubstantiated and I even feel it's pointless to research the issue. Whether to get married or not is too complicated a question among the gay population and it is almost impossible to project the number of married gay men by simple calculation. To put gays' wives under the spotlight might cause more public misunderstanding or even hatred toward the gay population, which does not help defuse existing social discrimination against them."
-Xiao Dong, a 36-year-old gay man, who heads a civil HIV/AIDS prevention and control organization, in the state-run newspaper, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn, Feb. 03.
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"The ongoing battle to defund Planned Parenthood is not about health but about politics. It's about a group of people deciding that their religious beliefs trump an individual's constitutionally protected right to decide what to do with her or his body. Gay men can't watch this happen and say, 'it's not my issue', because it is very much their issue. Right wing politicians who work to defund Planned Parenthood and make abortions more difficult to acquire, are the same politicians who work against funding HIV treatment or prevention for gay men. These are the people that claim that talking about gay sexual health is promoting a homosexual lifestyle. They also suggest that gay men have brought this disease upon themselves and since infections continue to go up, why should the government throw more money away on gay men?"
-Alex Garner, actor/writer/advocate/HIV Positive, in his column titled "HIV, Feminism, And The Politics Of The Body," about the recent decision by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation to no longer fund Planned Parenthood, http://www.frontiersla.com, Feb. 2.
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"As a Christian, marriage is between a man and a woman. I do not think that gay relationships are what God intended. That's just my viewpoint on it. In Georgia, we have a constitutional amendment against gay marriage. And it's something that I supported wholeheartedly. I am against gay adoption. Ultimately courts are going to be the ones to have to make the decision on that and it's always in the best interests of the child. Do I think that gay parents is in the best interest of the child? No. I would favor outlawing gay adoptions, absolutely. I think that for a child to be in a household – in a family in a household with a situation where the parents are not married, as in one man and one woman, is not the best household for a child. I'm not going to debate all the nuances. I've made it abundantly clear that I think that marriage is between a man and a woman. And that's what I believe. I think gay parents aren't as legitimate as heterosexual parents."
-Karen Handel, Senior VP, Susan G. Komen Foundation, a self-proclaimed conservative Republican who promised to defund Planned Parenthood two years ago while she was running for governor of Georgia, in an interview during her 2010 unsuccessful political campaign, http://gay.americablog.com , Feb. 2.
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