The LGBTQ+ community in China faces a tumultuous threat to existence.
For already marginalized groups, the new Internet rule is even more concerning. Photo: Getty Images/iStockphotoChina is home to the world’s largest LGBTQ+ population. And the Chinese Internet, for the most part, allows some queer self-expression.
While limited by censorship, the LGBTQ+ community in China have created ways to cope. They use as specialized vocabulary to help find community, a dating app that manages to avoid getting banned, popular BL dramas, and fragile hopes for the legalization of gay marriage.
Yet, homosexuality was only decriminalized in 1997.
And although there is a vibrant queer scene in Hong Kong and Taiwan is set to legalize multinational gay marriage, Mainland China can vary. Queerness in China is still largely shunned, misunderstood, and even pathologized.
As a result, many people turn to the Internet to seek the community and solidarity they could not find offline. However, a new rule on online self-publishing could silence LGBTQ+ communities.
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