marieclaire.com.au 83PHOTOGRAPHED BY GETTY IMAGES; JIMMY POZARIK. TEXT BY HANNAH-ROSE YEE; JOANNA CHIU. *EDITION.CNN.COM/2014/11/26/WORLD/ASIA/CHINA-RAINBOW-FLAG
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partners do not live with
each other. Some maintain
an apartment that they use
to host visiting family or
leave their belongings in
each other’s apartments to
make it appear as if they
are cohabiting.
During holidays and
other special occasions,
Xiao and Jing separate to
spend time with their
respective parents and
husbands’ families. But it’s a
small price to pay, spending
some days pretending to be
a dutiful wife, when that
allows them to be together
the rest of the year.
But China’s first openly
gay lawyer, Shanghai-based
Zhou Dan, counsels caution.
“Some think that because
the marriage is fake they
won’t have any problems.
But it can become very
messy if down the line
the couple disagrees on
issues such as shared
property or whether
or not to have children.”
At one of Xiao’s
gatherings, they all agreed
that change would be slow
to come to China.
“The US Supreme
Court’s decision to support
same-sex marriage is really
inspiring, but I don’t think
China will follow suit
anytime soon,” said a petite
27-year-old who is married
to a gay man in his 30s.
“LGBT people don’t
have many good options, so
I think just choosing what
makes us happiest is already
a revolutionary beginning.”Matt Pearce (left) and
Adrian Smith (right)
wore wedding dresses
as a protest during a
Hong Kong marathon.NOT JUST SKIN DEEP
This charity uses beauty therapy to help restore
the self-esteem of cancer patientsStep into a Look Good, Feel Better
workshop and you’ll find a room full of
women sharing their beauty secrets.
They’ll be showing each other how to tie a
turban, they might be trying out different
scarves and wigs, they might be comparing
their make-up kits and using a new brow
shaper to pencil in their eyebrows. There’s
a spirit of camaraderie in the room. All of
the women in these workshops are cancer
patients. And Look Good, Feel Better
provides them with beauty treatment
workshops to help them regain their self-
esteem after debilitating chemotherapy.
“Self-esteem is the first thing you lose
when you are diagnosed,” explains Julie
Carriol, the charity’s Australian founder.
Herself a breast cancer survivor, Carriol
first experienced Look Good, Feel
Better’s work when she attended a
workshop after her diagnosis in New York.“It was the most amazing experience,”
she recalls, describing the transformation
of attendees from apprehensive, dejected
patients into confident women.
In 1990, when she returned to Sydney,
she petitioned the board members of
hospitals and cosmetics companies to set
up a local arm of the charity. Today, some
180 venues are involved, with 125,000
cancer patients taking part.
Patients receive a bag of cosmetics
and skincare called a Confidence Kit
donated by some of the biggest brands
(think Revlon, Estée Lauder and L‘Oréal).
Volunteers give tutorials in how to apply
make-up tailored for cancer patients. After
that, it’s “playtime”, as Carriol puts it. “They
look in the mirror and they see a different
person. And that’s the whole point: to give
them back their sense of self.” To find out
more information, head to lgfb.org.au.Left: Jan Caitlin-Auld shows
patient Rowena how to use
a headscarf. Above: cancer
patient Margaret before
and after a Look Good,
Feel Better workshop.