'Some of us wish we could trick ourselves, too,' the 35-year-old added. 'I was so relieved that there was a way to please my parents without getting trapped in a marriage with some poor straight man,' said Xiaoxiong, self-described tomboy, who did not want to give her surname to protect her privacy. Searching out suitors for such a marriage of convenience proved difficult, so she created an online matchmaking forum to help others like her conform with family and societal pressures in China, where same-sex marriage is not legal and homosexuality remains taboo. When Xiaoxiong and her lesbian lover wanted to hide their relationship from their parents, they decided to find men willing to marry them.
