World News

22059 readers

90 users here now

Breaking news from around the world.

News that is American but has an international facet may also be posted here.

Guidelines for submissions:

Where possible, post the original source of information.
- If there is a paywall, you can use alternative sources or provide an archive.today, 12ft.io, etc. link in the body.
Do not editorialize titles. Preserve the original title when possible; edits for clarity are fine.
Do not post ragebait or shock stories. These will be removed.
Do not post tabloid or blogspam stories. These will be removed.
Social media should be a source of last resort.

These guidelines will be enforced on a know-it-when-I-see-it basis.

For US News, see the US News community.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

131

‘It’s difficult to survive’: China’s LGBTQ+ advocates face jail and forced confession (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 10 months ago by tardigrada@beehaw.org to c/news@beehaw.org

30 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 5 points 10 months ago

🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:

Click here to see the summary

The failed rescue attempt is one of more than 10 similar cases Mei knows of where advocates have been arrested and questioned by police since she joined an informal network providing support to the LGBTQ+ community some years ago.

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 2021, the founder of another group, LGBT Rights Advocacy China, was detained and released on condition that he close the organisation, which shuttered shortly after.

“In China, there is systematic persecution,” says Fangqing*, 23, a gender-fluid advocate who, before going into exile overseas, was pressed by police to admit to selling harmful drugs after attempting to help a victim of domestic violence.

While China has a law against domestic violence, it fails to adequately protect victims, especially LGBTQ+ people, say advocates, with crimes often dismissed as family affairs.

Those who help victims escape violence can be arrested and made to confess to charges such as illegally selling drugs, kidnapping or even “group licentiousness”, says Fangqing.

Saved 82% of original text.