April 10, 2008
The wave of repression and intimidation of human rights activists and dissidents in China in advance of the Beijing Olympics has also targeted homosexuals, according to China's best-known gay and AIDS activist.
Doug Ireland, an American journalist and blogger, writes in the April 10 online edition of Gay City News on another aspect of the Chinese government's human rights repression and "sanitizing" efforts in advance of the Beijing Games.
China is taking a beating on its human rights records lately for the situation in Tibet, yet there are other areas that need to be talked about as world opinion focuses on this emerging giant.
--see below for more--
I am no expert on China nor am I a committed gay activist to know a lot about the struggle for equal rights worldwide; there are countless others much more qualified than me to discuss this. For me, my knowledge is limited to the extent I have participated locally where I have lived, and my awareness of the struggle in the US over the last 20 years. So, this is pimping, pure and simple, of an article on the subject, which I think it relevant to the DailyKos community today.
Background on The state of homosexuality in Modern China.
About.com on Gay Life in China.
2006 opinion piece in Advocate.com on why gay rights are good for China.
Here are some of the salient statements from Ireland's story in Gay City News. Read the whole article HERE.
In an email, Dr. Wan Yanhai reported that the month of March saw numerous police raids on gay gathering spots in Beijing and Shanghai, and he said that the evidence of a new pre-Olympic crackdown on gays is so widespread it is clear it is being orchestrated "at the national level."
Wan is not just anybody. A former official of China's Ministry of Public Health, he was fired in 1994 for his participation in AIDS information and prevention campaigns and for his support of full equal rights for homosexuals.
In his email about the new anti-gay crackdown, Wan detailed several of the police raids. They began on March 9 when police invaded Destination, Beijing's most popular gay nightspot. Police pretended the nightclub was "over-crowded" and ordered it closed, and it remained shuttered for several days.
According to a well-informed foreigner residing in Beijing who spoke by telephone to this reporter on condition of anonymity, before proceeding to muscular interrogations of Destination's Chinese clients the police evacuated all non-Asians from the nightclub, to prevent any diplomat or other foreigner from witnessing the manner in which the police conducted their investigation.
On March 17, police and armed officers of the Bureau of Public Security, which is in charge of organizing the Olympics for the government, descended on Dongdan Park in the East District of Beijing, a well-known gay meeting place and cruising spot. According to Wan, police arrested all the gay people found in the park and took them to the police commissariat located there.
"The 40 people taken away by the police were all requested to show their ID, and their details were checked on the computer," Wan wrote. "They were all requested to write their name on a white paper, and hold the paper with their names before their chest to be photographed. Some people refused to be photographed and [were] released without being photographed. Some others, as a result of refusing to be photographed, and because their details were not found in the computer records, were taken to another police station for further interrogation.
Wan is not the only one in China to report on the anti-gay crackdown. The Shanghai-based English-language website The Shanghai-ist reported that "the raid on the Beijing club Destination took place the same night as a raid against PinkHome of Shanghai, where a number of gays were arrested. Such repressive measures taken so rapidly in such a short time span against places frequented by gays has never before been seen in China, and justifies our being afraid."
Contacted by this reporter, a foreigner residing in Beijing who had spoken to a number of Chinese gays said by telephone, "The authorities have begun this so-called clean-up to signal to Chinese gays that they better be really discreet and invisible during the Beijing Olympics.
The Chinese government's dismal human rights record is appropriately being scrutinized in advance of the Olympics this August. The Chinese take great national pride in hosting the games, and the world's protests against their attitudes will have an impact on their policies, although it is likely to come through much difficulty.
To email the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC, use this address: chinaembassy_us@fmprc.gov.cn
To voice your opinion to the International Olympic Committee, here is the web form.