On May 15, 2023, the 15 years of the Beijing LGBT Centre finally came to an end as the NGO working for enhancing LGBT rights finally had to forcefully terminate its operation after Chinese President XI Jinping’s CCP’s forced crackdown.
Bejing LGBT Centre took it to Sina Weibo (a Chinese microblogging alternative to Twitter) and WeChat (a WhatsApp alternative), stating, “We very regretfully announce the closure of the LGBT Centre today due to forces beyond our control”.
However, the Beijing LGBT Centre, which was functional throughout the People’s Republic of China since its advent on February 14th, 2008, has not stated any explanation behind its closure. Its closure now leaves LGBTQ people in China with very few options to turn to.
As per the analysts, the closure of one of the most sought-after LGBT rights organizations, the “Beijing LGBT Centre,” is being seen as the hardline political approach of the Xi Jinping government against the LGBT people.
VOA Mandarin on Chinese Government Anti-LGBT Agenda
As per Radio VOA( Voice of America) Mandarin, it tried to get in touch with the Beijing LGBT Centre through email. However, no response was received from their end.
However, VOA Mandarin has put a special emphasis on the “force majeure” that Beijing LGBT Centre mentioned in its official Sina Weibo account.
VOA Mandarin has called the statement a signal of an event outside the centre’s control.
Notably, the Centre indulged in promoting gender diversity and eliminating prejudice against the LGBT community with its psychological counselling, HIV testing, awareness campaigns, and gender-friendly workplace programmes.
The centre was one of the pioneers behind the lawsuit against several organisations that used to give electroshock therapy to homosexuals in XI Jinping’s China.
Jennifer Lu, Director of Outright International Asia, has been showing concerns for a long time about the Chinese government’s anti-LGBT environment.
In her recent interview with VOA Mandarin, Jennifer was highly critical of the Chinese government’s action against the LGB Centre in Beijing. Though she called the sudden closure of the centre a shame, she wasn’t astonished by the outcome as it was bound to happen considering the CCP’s ecosystem.
She further explained the grievances she had received from sexual minorities who have reported having no space to organise events or platforms to speak their minds.
LGBT Right Advocacy China: The First Victim of CCP’s Crackdown
Interestingly, the CCP’s crackdown comes in line with its previous one, which took place against “LGBT Right Advocacy China” in 2021 and marked the closure of the NGO for an indefinite time. LGBT Rights Advocacy China was after securing the legal rights for the LGBT community in China through strategic lawsuits in China’s legal system before the call was made to shut it down.
The termination came with the end of the Cyberspace Administration of China, which permanently incapacitated it and further deleted hundreds of LGBTQ student organisations’ accounts.
Now those same accounts turn up to be displaying the original names as ‘unnamed’ whereas the message that pops up is “As per screen regulations, we reviewed all content and suspended this account”.
LGBT: Perception through Time in China
What needs to be known here is that the acceptance of the LGBT community in China has varied historically. Modern China had a very neutral approach to the LGBTQ community. Neither it used to be seen as a crime nor was it deemed a disorder. For decades, the status quo of same-sex couples was obscure. Though a time came in 1979 when consensual same-sex acts were getting booked under the Hooliganism Law, with punishments ranging from imprisonment to execution, It got revoked by the year 1997, as the then-Chinese government came up with the historical decision to decriminalise homosexuality in the country.
Several transitions and liberal perceptions were visible by the time China entered the 21st century when, in 2001, the Chinese Society of Psychiatry took homosexuality off its list of mental disorders. But same-sex marriage still remained illegal.
It was only since Chinese President Xi Jinping took office in 2013 that the ecosystem against the LGBT community saw a drastic change. The Chinese government officials aggressively started pushing the narrative that LGBTQ is nothing but a Western idea that comes as a threat to Chinese society.
XI Jinping’s Government Anti-Homosexuality Stance
XI’s government further expressed concern over the big tech companies and accused them of promoting disruptive views that go against the traditional culture of Chinese society.
Jinping’s government’s autocracy is evident by the fact that there is a nationwide crackdown against various sections of society. Be it human rights lawyers, activists, public figures, or high-profile businessmen since 2015.
And the very recent incident speaks of the way Xi Jinping’s government looks down on the LGBT community. This week, China’s National Radio and Television Administration ordered the broadcasters to stop broadcasting the sissy men. Sissy, a derogatory term used against effeminate men. With the new crackdown under the CCP’s hardline approach, the future of the LGBT community only looks concerned.