In recent years, China’s LGBTQ+ community has been swept up in the Chinese Communist party’s broader crackdown on civil society and freedom of expression. In May 2023, a well known LGBTQ+ advocacy group in Beijing announced it was closing due to “unavoidable” circumstances. Last February, two university students filed a lawsuit against the education ministry after they were punished for distributing rainbow flags on campus.

  • @wahming
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    710 months ago

    As per the article, the reasons for the arrests are kidnapping

    As I pointed out, kidnapping is a side issue, and unrelated to the majority of the cases.

    this is not exactly an LGBTQ+ issue.

    But it’s not the government pushing this.

    From the article:

    In recent years, China’s LGBTQ+ community has been swept up in the Chinese Communist party’s broader crackdown on civil society and freedom of expression. In May 2023, a well known LGBTQ+ advocacy group in Beijing announced it was closing due to “unavoidable” circumstances. Last February, two university students filed a lawsuit against the education ministry after they were punished for distributing rainbow flags on campus.

    In 2021, the founder of another group, LGBT Rights Advocacy China, was detained and released on condition that he close the organisation, which shuttered shortly after. That year, dozens of social media accounts associated with university campus LGBTQ+ movements were also shut without warning. Shanghai Pride, the country’s longest-running celebration for sexual minorities, ended in 2020.

    How is this not directly caused by the govt, and ‘not exactly an LGBTQ+ issue’?

    • @Joncash2@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      I’ve already talked about it. When China doesn’t know what to do they censor everyone. But there are still gay bars and gay pride has gone into dance clubs.

      Heres a guide on where to go.

      https://www.travelgay.com/beijing-gay-bars-and-clubs

      Heck, they censored one of their most popular videos games genshin impact because it was too sexy. They censor straight sex too. In fact you could argue if they didn’t censor gay pride it would be preferential treatment.

      Hell your quote literally says it.

      Chinese Communist party’s broader crackdown on civil society and freedom of expression.

      • @wahming
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        510 months ago

        Ok, so it’s semantics.

        Look, if the LGBT population is being persecuted for being LGBT, that makes it an LGBT issue. If others are being affected as well, that means there are multiple, and broader issues, but that doesn’t make it any less an issue for the LGBT population. And it is very much being pushed by the govt.

        • @Joncash2@lemmy.ml
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          110 months ago

          Everyone is getting prosecuted equally so no it’s not an LGBTQ issue anymore than breathing is an LGBTQ issue.

          • @wahming
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            510 months ago

            What is with that stance?

            ‘They’re being persecuted for being LGBT, but others are being persecuted as well for unrelated reasons, so it’s not an LGBT issue’.

            If you’re being persecuted for being LGBT, it’s an LGBT issue! It doesn’t matter who else is being persecuted, it’s not mutually exclusive!

            • @Joncash2@lemmy.ml
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              10 months ago

              Again it’s not about LGBTQ. It’s anything to do with dressing different or talking about sex. That’s why boy love films are so popular in China. They dress them in fancy traditional garb and have sexual tension but no kissing or sex. Hell some of them got so popular they got onto Netflix.

              Here’s the main Chinese propaganda mouth piece promoting it.

              https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1168331.shtml

              • adderaline
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                110 months ago

                right, but you do understand that these things are interrelated. not all anti-LGBT policies explicitly target only LGBT people. if you restrict dressing “differently” and talking about sex, the people who dress differently or have different kinds of sex (queer people) are systemically disadvantaged when compared to straight and cis people. and if there’s bigotry in your society, there’s no guarantee that these restrictive policies are going to be applied to everybody equally.

                like, bathroom bills don’t have to mention trans people to target trans people exclusively, because very few other groups of people have the motivation to choose a bathroom that doesn’t align with their assigned sex at birth. if you restrict a behavior queer people are statistically highly likely to engage in, the fact that it could also impact other groups doesn’t make it not a queer issue.

                • @Joncash2@lemmy.ml
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                  110 months ago

                  Yes, but they are applying it equally. They are banning all mentions of sex, not just queer sex. They are censoring anything that shows too much skin, not just queer dressing. This is why I pointed out them censoring a video game made for kids. Basically they said a leotard was too revealing.

                  The problem isn’t the enforcement. The problem is the reporting. As society there reports against the LGBTQ more than other ones. Again, that’s not the government doing anything unequal or targeting. Which is why I said it’s not exactly an LGBTQ issue. It becomes one because of the older conservatives.

                  • adderaline
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                    110 months ago

                    look, if the realities of a system or policy are statistically more likely to target queer people, it is a queer issue lol. restrictions on discussing sex publicly disproportionately affect those who are sexual minorities, because all “legitimate” channels for learning about sex are usually targeted for heterosexual couplings. there’s a reason why queer people have a vested interest in sex education. modesty laws are also more oppressive for queer people by their nature.

                    anything that regulates how people dress also regulates gender expression, because clothing in most of the world is gendered. there are things that women wear that men can’t, things that are “too much skin” for women and not men. if you legislate what people can wear, you have a very good tool for targeting queer folks, even if it theoretically could also be used to target other kinds of self-expression. you can’t make a modesty law that isn’t also anti-queer by extension, because modesty as a concept is defined by patriarchy, heteronormativity, and cisnormativity.