Zhou Dan
2007 Icon

Chinese Gay Pioneer

b. January 19, 1974

"Law and policy always involve compromise and sometimes being a progressive means taking things one step at a time."
    
One generation removed from the persecution of gays under the People's Republic of China, Chinese gays encounter different obstacles than their American counterparts. Many Chinese believe that homosexuality exists only in the western world. The absence of legal protection and the threat of social isolation keep most Chinese LGBT individuals in the closet.

LGBT activist and attorney Zhou Dan came out to his friends in 1998 and the media in 2003. A champion of LGBT rights in China, Zhou writes articles on Chinese gay and lesbian Web sites. Although many LGBT Chinese use pseudonyms, Zhou uses his real name.

After revealing his sexuality to a Shanghai newspaper in 2003, Zhou appeared across China in newspapers and magazines and on television. Earlier that year, he established the Shanghai Hotline for Sexual Minorities.

In 2004 Zhou attended Yale Law School's China Law Center as a visiting scholar. In 2006 he taught China's first graduate class on homosexuality at Fudan University in Shanghai.

As a lawyer, Zhou fights for the LGBT community and people living with HIV/AIDS. He successfully lobbied the Ministry of Health not to bar HIV-positive people from government jobs. Zhou founded and currently serves as Executive Director of Yu Dan, the first Chinese organization promoting the recognition and acceptance of gay rights throughout mainland China.

In 2005 Zhou was featured in Tetu, a French gay and lesbian magazine. He was also profiled in TIME magazine as China's gay pioneer. In 2006 Equality Forum presented Zhou with its 11th Annual International Role Model Award.