Today, many women, especially in less-developed areas, are still afraid to be labeled as divorced and difficulties in court are only one of many reasons they hesitate to split.
"My mom warns me of the danger and pressure of being labeled as a divorced woman, a situation she confronted when she was young," says Kathy. "You can say everything you like about society being more open, which is true, but the truth is that people still look at divorced women with pity or discrimination. And I want neither."
In January, the First Intermediate People's Court of Beijing made a legal proposal to allow women who discover their spouses are homosexual to file for annulment rather than divorce; thus, their legal status would revert to single, rather than divorced.
Experts say this would help many spouses of gay men, fearful of being stigmatized, find a way out of a difficult marriage. But it's only a proposal at this stage.
Divorced women in less-developed areas also find it very difficult to support themselves after a divorce.
"I'm much happier now that I'm divorced," says Juan Zi, a divorced wife of a gay man, in an online interview. "But it took me five years to decide. It isn't easy to make living as a single mother, and I've gone through many difficulties, but I'm still glad I did it."
The Bund turns into beach as the temperature reaches high
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