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.
Yeah Naomi Wu was also arrested and “silcenced” last year (she’s no longer allowed to publish anything even stuff not critical of the CCP). https://skepchick.org/2023/08/maker-naomi-wu-is-silenced-by-chinese-authorities-and-why-i-blame-elon-musk/
She is also feminist and lesbian and has an Uyghur girlfriend, which was blatantly published by Vice after promises not to do so, which suddenly put her on the radar 😭 It’s a shame because I have big respect for her and her content.
I don’t really understand why China is so against LGBTQ+, I don’t think they have any religious basis for this. But I assume it has a lot to do with their demography crisis (rapidly falling birth numbers). Even though it seems counterproductive to me, them being against LGBTQ+ does not really make it disappear, I think facilitating IVF for happy LGBT couples to raise loved children would be more productive. But anyway…
The same applies to Russia. You can say something similar about ultra conservative Catholics, since the Pope has called for tolerance. Yet, they would rather denounce the Pope than tolerate LGBTQ+.
The key idea is that bigotry is not driven by religious affiliation, but rather by authoritarian attitudes. That’s what’s common between China, Russia and the ultra conservatives in the US. Tolerance of LGBTQ indicates freedom and liberalism in some sense. And both are challenges to the stakeholders of authoritarianism. They want a world where people live within the framework they dictate - and thus the bigotry.
Not really. Russia has a strong orthodox influence. They suppressed it during the soviet times but it is back in full force.
That’s a small splinter group though. Most catholics are pretty open. Even Ireland allowed gay marriage now by popular vote.
Aha that does make sense. The LGBTQ movement is indeed very progressive and liberal. I do think there is often a religous component as well (though that seems to be missing in China) but this sounds like a good explanation.
Nooooo! Not Naomi!
I don’t really follow her content, but I love her existence and all her efforts towards education and awareness on many topics.
I hope she’s able to find freedom again somehow.
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Well she is in freedom, she was released. She’s just not free to publish. So she is well but not able to do what she loved.
I wouldn’t call it freedom. If she’s treated like other “security threats” within China, then she does not have freedom to travel. She’s likely limited to her city at most, perhaps even just a small area within and has to regularly report to local police. Think of it like probation for people convicted of actual crimes in the West, except without court order, for an unlimited amount of time and with the constant threat of being tortured/disappeared looming over her head. If Xi ever feels like tightening the thumb screws on the Chinese people even further, she’d probably feel the effects before many others. All of this comes with social consequences, as many friends and business partners will be scared away.
So… Just like probation?
The Naomi situation is ridiculous. Such a nice person with amazing stories to tell and things to do being swept under the rug like it’s nothing
Yes and she was not overly critical at all. Instead she focused mainly on her tech.
I really miss her great content 😢 And her personality.
I was curious about this as I read a few BL Manhua. It was pretty well accepted since at least the Han dynasty, and has been argued that westernisation during the Qing dynasty is what introduced the opposition towards it. I mainly just read about it on this Wikipedia page so I could also be completely wrong ^ - ^ `
Being in the infosec space and seeing her blow up back in 2017-2019, I’m shocked it took the CCP this long to come down on her. She always kept any political criticism at arm’s length, but her not being the Beijing-approved image of femininity was always going to make her a target in Xi’s China.