Wives of gay men in fraud fight

By Wang Yizhou Source:Global Times Published: 2012-7-5 1:55:02

The two co-founders of an online community for wives of gay men are being accused of defrauding about 90,000 yuan ($14,178) from the group.

The website, tongqijiayuan.com, was said to be the largest of its kind in China where the wives and ex-wives of gay men could share information and seek counseling. They were also required to pay a registration fee.

Attempts to log onto the website returned a page saying it was "temporarily closed" on Wednesday.

An open letter signed by 51 members of Tongqijiayuan, posted on the Internet, accused the two founders of failing to deliver any of the promised counseling services and refusing to return their registration fees.

The letter claims that Yao Lifen, a 29-year-old civil servant in Shaanxi Province, who divorced her gay husband and launched the website in July 2011, conspired with An Yao, a 30-year-old freelancer. The disgruntled members say after the man and woman became romantically involved the group's financial troubles soon became apparent.

Yao is now claiming she has been victimized again, saying An cheated her out of 20,000 yuan and threatened to commit suicide in June but later disappeared, according to a Southern Metropolis Daily report.

"Police questioned me on June 11. I said it was An's illegal moves that resulted in the economic losses of 10 community members. I was not involved in these wrongdoings," Yao was quoted as saying.

Neither Yao nor An could be reached on Wednesday.

Members of the online community once numbered 4,000, according to Zhang Beichuan, a professor at Qingdao University on homosexuality and HIV/AIDS prevention, who has written columns for the website told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Each member was required to pay a 1,000 yuan registration fee. Volunteers, who were promised free training overseas, had to pay a 2,000 yuan registration, users said.

An and Yao also promoted other programs such as soliciting donations for charities, and professional counseling.

The website also offered high-yield investment schemes to members, ranging from 50 to 20,000 yuan.

No investment account was ever opened, and no services were provided, the open letter states.

"The total loss is at least 90,000 yuan," an insider was quoted as saying by Southern Metropolis Daily on Wednesday.

The 51 members have urged other members of the group who may have been victimized to speak out.

The group did not respond to emails from the Global Times Wednesday.  

"There are about 10 million wives of gay husbands in China, including the wives of bisexual men," said Zhang from Qingdao University in an earlier interview with the Global Times.

Peng Xiaohui, a sexologist at Central China Normal University, said the case exposes the vulnerability of people involved in the homosexual community due to the sensitivity of the issue.



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