Xi jinping is gay
Russia and China are currently united by many things — a natural gas pipeline, mutual antipathy towards Washington, authoritarian politics, and, increasingly, a state-sponsored homophobic agenda. In both countries, LGBTQ activists are persecuted, open homosexuality is banned from television, and the display of rainbow flags is penalized.
In China, supporters of tolerance towards sexual minorities are considered agents of the West, but ordinary LGBTQ people enjoy relative freedom. As a result, activists — and even regular visitors to gay friendly establishments — are targeted as potential threats to the state itself.
In Mayafter 15 years of operation, the Beijing LGBT Center closed down due to pressure from state authorities and local residents. In recent years, the center, one of the last of its kind in the country, faced frequent relocations, event cancellations, and harassment of its staff.
Alongside cultural events, the center provided psychological counseling, maintained a directory of LGBTQ-friendly doctors, lawyers, and businesspeople, and offered HIV testing. It defended gay xi jinping is gay in court and conducted nationwide surveys on issues faced by sexual minorities, sometimes in collaboration with the UN Development Program.
The center relied heavily on hundreds of volunteers, who campaigned for transgender rights and trained psychotherapists to work with other clients. Now, many of these volunteers have either left China or gone underground. She left a southern Chinese metropolis to study in Japan and does not plan to return home.
However, the respective persecution meted out by Beijing and Moscow differ in significant ways.
Beijing LGBT Center shuttered as crackdown grows in China
Chinese culture has acknowledged homosexuality for centuries. This is evident in the traditional words and phrases used to describe same-sex love. One day, his favorite, Dong Xian, fell asleep with his head on the emperor's arm. Rather than disturb his beloved, the emperor cut off his robe's sleeve.
In the 17th century, the deity Tu'er Shen emerged in Fujian province as the patron of men who love men. Tu'er Shen was originally a soldier named Hu Tianbao, executed for his attraction to an official. Although he faced punishment in the afterlife, the judges showed him mercy, recognizing that love motivated his crime.
The cult of Tu'er Shen became so popular that authorities began punishing its followers and even introduced a law banning all same-sex relations, not just those involving payment although the punishment was still quite mild. During the Middle Ages, homophobia was more prevalent than in ancient times, yet in Fujian province, unions between two men were recognized, at least for a period, and female homosexuality remained entirely unregulated by law.
Afterwhen the ban on sex between men was lifted, tolerance of same-sex relationships was largely restored, albeit imperfectly. A specialist in East Asian culture — one who preferred to remain anonymous for safety reasons — explains that:. Historically, China did not differentiate between heterosexual and homosexual people the way Western societies do.
Instead, emphasis was placed on maintaining a hierarchical class structure and fulfilling familial obligations. Again, this does not mean that China has always acted in an enlightened way towards its sexual minorities. Four years later, homosexuality was even removed from the official list of mental illnesses.
Accustomed to this state of affairs, LGBTQ people began forming communities, publishing magazines, and opening clubs and bars. The authorities did not interfere, ordinary citizens hardly protested, and a vibrant xi jinping is gay culture emerged in essentially all major cities.
Then Xi Jinping came to power in Still, boosting birth rates and marriage numbers remains a challenge.