Friend Exchange has successfully fulfilled its mission, promoting knowledge, encouraging gay men and other stigmatized people and helping the society to understand the community, said Pan Suiming, head of the Institute for Research of Sexology and Gender at Renmin University.
In today's China, gay men have become much more recognized by the society and government. In most cities, the gay community has come out of the underground world, said Tong Ge, president of China's Gay Health Forum.
But Qiu Renzong, a renowned ethics scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences believes the closure of 'Friend Exchange' is untimely. "In fact, we need more publications like 'Friend Exchange' to fight the discrimination and stigmatization of AIDS sufferers and other marginalized risky groups."
"I felt sad when I received the last issue. For years, I have been learning from the magazine, quoting its stories to comfort fellow sufferers," said AIDS activist Murong Feng, who is gay and HIV positive.
Birte Seffert, a scholar at Free University of Berlin medical school Charite, has been sharing the stories from "Friend Exchange" with her students and friends at a NGO group in Berlin.
"Through 'Friend Exchange,' we saw progress in Chinese society and we continued to learn about the MSM community and AIDS-prevention work in China," she said.
