Tag: china gay rights

With Rainbow Flags, 2 Students Test China’s Shrinking L.G.B.T.Q. Space

The students at an elite college in China found themselves on a collision course with the authorities amid a crackdown on gay and transgender expression. Karolyn Li still remembers reading the brochure from China’s prestigious Tsinghua University when she was in high school preparing to apply to college. It highlighted a graduate who had co-founded… Read more »

Here’s how hundreds of Chinese same-sex couples are getting married in Utah

Two laws in the state have converged to make this possible. A legal loophole has led a slew of LGBTQ couples from China – where same-sex marriage is not recognized – to get legally married in Provo, Utah. Two laws in the state have converged to make this possible. Number one: the state of Utah… Read more »

China’s Tsinghua University Punishes Students for LGBTQ Flags

Advocacy for LGBTQ people increasingly tough in Xi’s ChinaClampdown on sexual diversity has deepened in top universities Two students at one of China’s most prestigious universities were issued warnings for distributing LGBTQ rainbow flags, highlighting how the nation’s increasing intolerance for sexual diversity is extending further into campuses. The pair were reprimanded for placing 10… Read more »

China to ban video games featuring same-sex relationships, ‘effeminate’ men and moral choices

China will ban video games featuring same-sex relationships, ‘effeminate’ men and moral choices, according to a leaked memo. The internal memo from a recent internal training by the state-backed gaming association was revealed by the South China Morning Post, lays out new restrictions for approving video games in China. According to the publication, the memo… Read more »

Hong Kong Gay Games postponed for one year

Organizers cite potential COVID-related travel restrictions Hong Kong – Officials with Gay Games Hong Kong 2022, the committee organizing the quadrennial international LGBTQ sports event scheduled to take place in Hong Kong in November 2022, announced on Sept. 15 that the Gay Games will be postponed for one year due to concerns over the COVID-19… Read more »

Gay Games in Hong Kong face attacks as China’s proxies target LGBT groups

Hong Kong — When Hong Kong was announced in 2017 as host of the 11th Gay Games next year, the first time the event would be held in Asia, it was a nod to the city’s status as a cosmopolitan place and a relative bright spot in the region for progressive causes. Now, attacks on… Read more »

China’s LGBTQ community is fading from rainbow to gray

Hong KongEditor’s note: CNN has launched the Meanwhile in China newsletter, a three-times-a-week update exploring what you need to know about the country’s rise and how it impacts the world. Sign up here. During this year’s Pride Month, soccer star Li Ying made history as China’s first female athlete to come out publicly as gay,… Read more »

Gay Olympics: HK leaders label event ‘disgraceful’

Politicians have been warned for their biased views of the international event and the LGBTQ community Hong Kong’s leaders have been feuding over the upcoming Gay Games 2022 or Gay Olympics, and some politicians have been warned for their biased views of the LGBTQ community. The city will be the first in Asia to host… Read more »

Together for 50 years, a lawsuit reminds China that love and marriage are very different things

A judge ruled that, while it was obvious the two women were a couple, marriage laws did not apply to their case This despite one of the women suffering from a mental disorder that required her sister to become her legal guardian After more than 50 years of living with her partner, a Chinese lesbian… Read more »

How a kiss with a pilot in an elevator changed this man’s life and could help fight LGBTQ discrimination in China

Beijing (CNN) – Former flight attendant Chai Cheng still has nightmares about the moment of passion that cost him everything. In October 2019, footage was leaked online of Chai kissing a male pilot from the same airline — China Southern, the country’s largest carrier. Both men were off duty, and the kiss — which has… Read more »

Homosexuality can be called a mental disorder, Chinese court rules; LGBT community disappointed

A Hong Kong social worker’s lawsuit in China challenging a widely used textbook that calls homosexuality a mental disorder has been rejected a second time An LGBT support group spokesman says the textbook’s description is as inaccurate as saying the sun revolves around the earth A Chinese court has upheld a ruling that a textbook… Read more »

Chengdu, China’s ‘Gay Capital’ Is Not Giving In

Chengdu, China’s ‘gay capital’, is continuing its openness toward the LGBTQIA+ community despite increasing steps by Beijing to curb it, The Japan Times reports. The city, which is located in south-western China, has built up a reputation for welcoming the LGBTQIA+ community with gay bars and saunas. Called “Gaydu” by Chinese millennials, the city has… Read more »

The brutal institutions ‘transforming’ China’s LGBT, nonconformist youth

Played out on social media, a dispute between a 17-year-old transgender woman and her parents has shone a spotlight on the country’s ‘schools’ that exist to ‘regulate’ the behaviour of teenagers In March 2018, when Huang Xiaodi turned 17, her family told her to return home to Jiangyin, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, so they… Read more »

Mapping out a spectrum of the Chinese public’s discrimination toward the LGBT community: results from a national survey

AbstractBackground China has the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) population. This study assessed the discrimination experienced by LGBT individuals in China in a comprehensive way, covering discrimination perpetrated by family, media, medical services, religious communities, schools, social services, and in the workplace.Methods The current study involved a national survey of 31 provinces… Read more »

China’s LGBT community in push to legalise same-sex marriage

Hundreds of thousands have shared their love stories, written letters and made submissions to a review into Chinese civil law during Novembe Same-sex marriage is not banned in China, but it currently has no legal status Nearly 200,000 people have appealed to the Chinese authorities to recognise same-sex marriage, in a month-long push sparked by… Read more »

Gay Chinese find a place to be themselves on ‘Rainbow Cruise’ to Vietnam

(BL) – Workshops, talks and advice on LGBT issues are on offer during five-day return journey from Shenzhen to Da Nang With more than 1,000 gay Chinese and their families on board the ship, it’s also a place for some to come out On the deck of a cruise ship in southern China, two grey-haired… Read more »

Hong Kong Court Issues Landmark Ruling in a Victory for LGBT Rights

(Hong Kong) — Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal said Thursday the government cannot deny spousal employment benefits to same-sex couples, in a ruling hailed as a major step forward for same-sex equality in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. The court overturned an earlier judgment, saying unanimously that denying same-sex couples access to spousal benefits is… Read more »

Hong Kong High Court repeals laws criminalizing gay male sex

Breaking: Three other laws remain, but now apply to all people The High Court in Hong Kong immediately repealed four offenses criminalizing gay male sex on Thursday (30 May). Justices reviewed seven offenses total, all part of the Crime Ordinance, and kept three intact after formally revising them. They ultimately found the four offenses unconstitutional… Read more »

A Chinese Dating App for Gay Men Is Helping Them Have Kids, Too

Blued’s new service connects men with overseas surrogates. Will China’s government mind? The urge to have a child hit Geng Le hard after age 35. A former cop from China’s Hebei province, he’d launched a gay dating app called Blued a couple of years earlier, in 2012, and had become something of an icon for… Read more »

This is why Lunar New Year is a time of massive anxiety for LGBTIs in China

‘Sometimes our parents are more like children than we are,’ one gay man in China said Justin doesn’t plan to return to his hometown in southern China this Lunar New Year. As a closeted gay man, Justin said he could not face the ‘worry and uncertainty’. Over the festivities, his parents and other relatives would… Read more »

China shuts down two LGBTI organizations

Activists say it is becoming increasingly difficult for LGBTI groups to operate Regional authorities in China shut down two LGBTI organizations on Tuesday (8 January). The Municipal Affairs Bureau in the southern metropolis Guangzhou labeled the Guangzhou University Rainbow Group and the Guangzhou Gender and Sexuality Education Center as ‘illegal social organizations’. The organizations provided… Read more »

In China, at least 130 places still offer LGBTI conversion therapy

Results of a new survey reveal just the tip of the iceberg, activists warn A new survey conducted by LGBTI advocates and NGOs in China has revealed at least 136 locations offering LGBTI conversion therapy in the country. A ‘heat map’ published by Matters shows 134 confirmed locations in hospitals, clinics, and psychiatric centers across… Read more »

Gay Singaporean man wins landmark appeal to adopt surrogate child

A gay Singaporean man has won a landmark court case which will allow him to adopt a child he fathered through a surrogate. The man, 46, and his long-term partner carried out the process in the US at a cost of $200,000 (£159,000), as surrogacy is illegal in Singapore. He tried to legally adopt the… Read more »

Gay Chinese teacher loses case for unfair dismissal

A labor arbitration committee in Qingdao rejected the teacher’s claims he was fired for being gay A labor arbitration committee in Qingdao, China, last week ruled against a gay teacher who sued a kindergarten. He claims he was fired for being gay. Taking the pseudonym Ming Yue, he said parents of students at his previous… Read more »

‘No limits’ Beijing queer film festival returns this weekend

The 13th edition of mainland China’s longest-running LGBTI film festival opens with Birds in Mire by Zhang Wanlin Fans of queer Asia cinema are in for a treat this weekend as the week-long Beijing queer film festival opens in China’s capital. The festival, now known as Love Queer Cinema Week, returns for its 11th edition… Read more »

Is this China’s chance for marriage equality?

Gay Star News spoke to Sun Wenlin, the man pushing China’s leaders to recognize same-sex marriage Sun Wenlin wants the government of China to change its civil code and recognize same-sex marriage. Sun, from China’s Hunan Province, launched an online campaign this month to encourage the National People’s Congress (NPC) to discuss equal marriage. His… Read more »

Gay teacher in China files case for unfair dismissal

In landmark case and big step for LGBTI rights in China, labor arbitration will hear whether a teacher was unfairly dismissed due to his sexuality A labor arbitration committee in Qingdao, China will hear an unfair dismissal case brought by a kindergarten teacher who claims he was fired for being gay. The school allegedly fired… Read more »

Gay Sex In China: Where Communist Puritanism Meets Colonial Baggage

Centuries-old tales showing an acceptance of same-sex romance abound in Chinese culture, but even ultra modern Hong Kong lags behind in embracing the LGBTI community Like India, where the recent decriminalisation of gay sex is a return to deep historical roots, China has a long tradition of acceptance – at times even celebration – of… Read more »

Alarmingly high rates of HIV among China’s youth

Young Chinese people living in urban areas have never had it so good. They have better access to education and healthcare services, and a higher quality of life overall. But authorities are alarmed by one statistic: rates of HIV among young people aged 15-19 have tripled over the past decade. While China’s youth have become… Read more »

China’s LGBT community finds trouble, hope at end of rainbow

Beijing: When two women wearing rainbow badges were beaten up by security guards in an arty part of Beijing last month, social media users quickly jumped in to fight their corner. China’s LGBT community may not get much support from authorities, but in a sign of growing tolerance in Chinese society, people are using the… Read more »

China’s LGBT community finds trouble, hope at end of rainbow

Beijing: When two women wearing rainbow badges were beaten up by security guards in an arty part of Beijing last month, social media users quickly jumped in to fight their corner. China’s LGBT community may not get much support from authorities, but in a sign of growing tolerance in Chinese society, people are using the… Read more »

Thousands Celebrate Hong Kong Pride 2017

Thousands of revelers joined Hong Kong’s annual LGBT Pride parade and march on Saturday. According to the AFP, roughly 10,000 revelers joined this year’s event. Police estimated the crowd at 2,000. While gay sex has been legal in Hong Kong since 1991, the city does not recognize same-sex couples and the LGBT community has limited… Read more »

A Chinese queer couple’s wedding day, made possible by a cruise

Chen Zhichao and Yang Jieli knew it was love at first sight. But as a Chinese queer couple, it wasn’t easy for them to get married and recognized by the people around them. A special “LGBTQ” wedding cruise made it possible. Watch the video above to learn about the couple’s journey. The cruise was organized… Read more »

China has published its first study of transgender people and it’s exactly as worrying as you’d expect

China’s first nationwide report on its trans population has indicated startling rates of violence and depression within the community. The poll, released this week, revealed that high amounts of transgender, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming people live in poverty and lack access to sufficient medical care. ? 12.7% of those had also attempted suicide and/or self-harm. In… Read more »

Rights group urges China to ban abusive gay ‘conversion’

Hong Kong (AP) — The Chinese government should stop hospitals and other medical facilities from subjecting LGBT people to conversion therapy that in some cases has involved electroshock, involuntary confinement and forced medication, a human rights group said Wednesday. The report released by New York-based Human Rights Watch, based on interviews with 17 people subjected… Read more »

Hong Kong has the 2022 Gay Games. Life for China’s LGBTI people may improve at last

I’m glad that Hong Kong won the bid to host the Games. But governmental attitudes towards LGBTI equality both here and in China remain archaic This month Hong Kong won the bid to host the 2022 Gay Games – the first time the Games will be held in Asia. The campaign to win the Games,… Read more »

Chinese man wins court battle against gay cure therapy

A state hospital in China has been banned from forcing a gay man to undergo conversion therapy intended to make him heterosexual. The monumental ruling has been hailed as a victory by gay rights advocates in China, according to The Times. The plaintiff, named Yu Hu, was forced by his relatives into the care of… Read more »

China’s Largest Gay-Dating App Tries Streaming

Life was tough for Ma Baoli after he came out and quit his job as a policeman. Five years later, his internet company Blue City is a top player in China’s LGBT market. Episode one of the Bloomberg video series Love Disrupted explores how the social networking app Blued is changing the way gay men… Read more »

Chinese tourists head to Thailand for preventative HIV drug

Bangkok (The Nation/Asia NewsNetwork) – Thailand, which has for years been a hot destination for Chinese tourists, has now also become a draw for those seeking to buy cheap drugs to prevent HIV. Pre-exposure prophylaxis, commonly known as PrEP, is a type of medicine that, if taken daily, can reduce the risk of HIV infection… Read more »

As Taiwan legalized gay marriage, China shut down its most iconic lesbian social media platform

“So much smog here, how can we see the rainbow?” @Melody commented on Weibo—China’s micro-blog site—following Taiwan’s ruling on same-sex marriage. On May 24, Taiwan’s constitutional court ruled that same-sex couples have the right to legally marry, becoming the first place to do so in Asia. The ruling was an encouraging sign for LGBTQ communities… Read more »