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In 2016, Beijing banned depictions of gay people on TV and the internet in a sweeping crackdown on "vulgar, immoral and unhealthy content." Regulations said any reference to homosexuality promotes the "dark side of society," lumping gay content in with sexual violence and incest.Ī recent report by Human Rights Watch examines how Chinese parents threatened, coerced and sometimes physically forced their adolescent and adult LGBT children to submit to conversion therapy. Organizers said the government limited the event to 200 people. Last month, as Canada and many other countries celebrated Pride, China's sole rainbow gathering was in Shanghai. "Don't support homosexuality, don't oppose and don't promote." "The government has its 'Three No's,'" said Xiaogang Wei, the executive director of the LGBT group Beijing Gender.
Indeed, Beijing's approach to homosexuality has been ambiguous and sometimes contradictory. "I think when things are as difficult as they are now, it is normal when LGBT people feel hopeless, without security." "We are trying to push forward the LGBT movement and change things for the better," said Ma. Bill to expunge gay-sex criminal records takes effect in Canada today.Alberta judge dismisses bid to place gay-straight alliance law on hold.Privately, Ma ran a website popular with China's stigmatized gay community, estimated to be 70 million people. Publicly, he wore a cop's uniform and enforced laws that included a ban on homosexuality (which was outlawed in China until 1997), and was married to a woman. He said he first fell in love with a man while at the police academy in the 1990s.įor years, he led a double life. "I want to be able to stand up and tell people that there is a guy named Geng Le in China, who is gay, living a very happy life, who even has his own adopted baby," said Ma, referring to the pseudonym he has used since his days writing an underground blog about gay life in the small coastal city of Qinghuangdao.īack then, he needed to hide. His corner office at Blued is decorated with pictures of near-naked men wrapped in rainbow banners, alongside official portraits of him shaking hands with top business and government officials. "I wanted to find a lover, but it was so hard." I felt so tiny," said Ma Baoli, thinking back 20 years.
"Back in my time, we felt depressed, isolated and lonely. It helps that the CEO of Blued has become something of an icon in the nascent Chinese gay movement, fighting his way from a youth spent desperately looking for love online in small-town internet cafés.