LGBT Rights
- Date: Mar 27,2008
China has a record of human rights abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) citizens. Among the many complaints:
- Since the creation of the People’s Republic of China, the ruling Communist Party has persecuted LGBT citizens in a variety of forms;
- The government refuses to address LGBT rights issues and HIV/AIDS prevention and education issues;
- The government’s strict internet monitoring and censoring has led to the shut down of many LGBT-oriented websites and the arrest and persecution of their owners and operators;
- The lives of LGBT people are officially classified a “moldering life style of capitalism”;
- China has no laws or statutes protecting LGBT from discrimination in the workplace or at home;
- There are no LGBT rights or advocacy organizations in China, due to its extreme anti-gay environment;
- The Chinese, government-controlled media hardly ever covers LGBT issues, and when it does LGBT people are smeared;
- The Chinese government forbids the showing of LGBT-oriented or LGBT-affirming films and movies;
- Television programs containing mention of LGBT people or issues are classified as “going against the healthy way of life in China,” and are banned;
- Gay bars and other establishments are subject to regular police harassment;
- In 1999, a Beijing court ruled that homosexuality was “abnormal and unacceptable to the Chinese public”;
- LGBT people are subject to regular police detainment and arrest;
- In 2001, 37 gay men were detained Guangdong Province;
- In Hong King, until 1991, homosexuality was an offense punishable by life imprisonment. Until 2005, sexual relations between any two consenting males under the age of 21 was illegal.
