Gay rights have come a long way in the mainland since homosexuality was a crime, until 1997, or classified as a mental illness, until 2001.
Last month, Beijing hosted its second annual conference for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) activists. This year’s event not only attracted twice as many delegates, but – for the first time – funding of more than US$ 30,000 (HK$232,600) from a joint US-United Nations initiative to improve gay rights in Asia. It also had the approval of Chinese government departments and the China Family Planning Association.
This year’s conference drew more than 140 delegates from 28 regions in the mainland – including Tibet and Xinjiang – plus a small number from Hong Kong, Taiwan, the UK and the US.
The event, on August 17-18, was organised for the second year running by the Beijing Gender Health Education Institute.
“This is actually quite astonishing,” said a woman who used to be a lesbian group organiser in Beijing but now studies in Hong Kong. “A few years ago, police would intimidate and disperse volunteers just for setting up an information booth.”
The regional initiative, called “Being LGBT in Asia,” was launched in late 2012 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) to study and support LGBT rights in China, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Cambodia and Indonesia.