Based on ethnographic research on self-identified gay men in Northeast China, this talk addresses the ways in which these men worked in collaboration with, rather than against, the state. Deploying and appropriating the state-endorsed AIDS cause, they drew on the dominant moral order as a legitimate resource to attempt to infuse gay activism while still seeking legitimacy in the mainstream culture. They believed that by declaring that elimination of homophobia was essential to curb AIDS transmission, they used AIDS activism to provide legitimacy for their gay activism.
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