CHINA will continue to ban same-sex unions, State media reported Wednesday.

China's 2001 marriage law forbid gay marriages and officials would not process paperwork for any such unions, Xinhua News Agency reported, quoting Civil Affairs Ministry official Zhang Mingliang.

"According to relevant rules, couples of the same sex are forbidden to marry each other," Zhang was quoted saying in The Beijing Times newspaper.

"But the new regulations on marriage registration have no special restriction on marriages involving such people," Zhang said in reference to gays.

Canada recently allowed gay marriages, sparking some discussion in China. The Beijing Times said Zhang, head of the ministry's Community Development Department, made his comments Tuesday in response to "a controversy in society over the issue of whether homosexuals should be allowed to marry."

Chinese psychiatrists, until recently, listed homosexuality as a mental illness. Even today, few Chinese gays publicly acknowledge their homosexuality and anti-gay discrimination is still strong.

China's largely closeted gay population, which is estimated to be as many as 50-100 million by some experts, have seen a flurry of breakthroughs in recent years.

The government struck homosexuality from a list of psychiatric disorders in 2001.

 
Editor: Wings