Today in Int'l Gay News: China's Anti-Gay Crackdown, Oprah Talks to Gays Around Globe
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Written by jay
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Thursday, 10 April 2008 23:00 |
Life for gays in China is more difficult than usual lately, with the Chinese government appearing to be launching some sort of crackdown on cruising areas, bars and bathhouses in advance of the Beijing Olympics-because of course the Chinese haven't figured out that gays are actually a boon to a country's cultural and economic vitality, not an embarrassment.
Also, Oprah's doing a whole "gays around the world" show today, featuring that gay prince from India.
Gayness was essentially decriminalized in China in 1997, however the
country remains repressed and oppressive and appears to be acting on
the national level to "clean up" the gay scene in Beijing in a scary
series of vaguely defined police raids reminiscent of decades past in
US cities like New York.
Gay City News brings us this report direct from Dr. Wan Yanhai, China's best known gay and AIDS activist. Hundreds of homos have been rounded up and intimidated in recent weeks at gay gathering spots, all under suspicious pretenses. One raid, on a popular gay cruising park in the East District of Beijing, was done under the pretense of a murder investigation, however no one brought to the police station, photographed and interrogated was questioned about any criminal case. Also, the popular gay nightclub Destination was raided on March 9 under the pretense of "over-crowding." The club was then shuttered for several days before re-opening.
Then, in tube news, Oprah is showing Middle America that other countries have the gays too. On today's show she interviews several global gays about the oppression they've faced, including one of the "Cairo 52" and Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil of Rajpipla, the heir to the royal throne who's been disowned by his parents, the king and queen.
RELATED:
Iranian Fag Being Bounced to Britain in Bureaucratic Pinball
China's Anti-Gay Crackdown (Gay City News)
Living Their Truth (Oprah.com)
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