AIDS patient marries healthy person, Local hotel refuses to host banquet
[Suzhou Newsweb 30 April 2005]
http://www.szrbs.net/news_content.asp?NS_ID=6&NC_ID=376053　

A group wedding for two AIDS patients and two healthy people was held in Dazhi, Hubei province yesterday. Because many local hotels refused to host the banquet for a wedding of people with AIDS, the ceremony had to be moved to canteen in the Dazhi City Health bureau, and the joint wedding ceremony held in the 4th floor meeting room of the Health Department. There were no family members present at the ceremony.

Yesterday morning at 10am, with horns honking, two cars covered with roses entered the Dazhi City health bureau. One car carried Huang Zhaohong (an AIDS patient) and his wife Yi Xing, the other carried Wu Xiaoliang and Rao Lan (an AIDS patient).

There were four tables set for yesterday’s joint ceremony, but there were only enough people for three. The ceremony was originally planned to be conducted in a hotel, but the banquet organizers contacted three local hotels, and none of them were willing to host a banquet for these two couples. The reason was that they “feared that it would affect their normal business”, and that if other guests discovered they would cancel their reservations, since most local residents would not be willing to eat in the same restaurant as a person with AIDS. With no other choice, the couples had to hold the wedding banquet in the Dazhi health bureau canteen.

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