China’s media watchdog in legal challenge over censorship of gay content
Beijing court accepts rare case in which regulator will be asked to provide legal basis for rules that describe homosexuality as ‘abnormal’
A member of the public is taking China’s media watchdog to court over new regulations that describe gay relationships as “abnormal”, demanding the regulator provide a legal basis for censoring audiovisual content on the internet that depicts homosexuality.
In a rare move, the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People’s Court accepted the case from Fan Chunlin, 30, earlier this week and is expected to hand down a verdict within six months, state-run Global Times reported, citing Fan’s lawyer, Tang Xiangqian.
The chances of winning are small, Tang told the newspaper, but he hoped the case would raise awareness of gay rights and help promote acceptance of the community.
There are an estimated 70 million members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in mainland China. Homosexuality was illegal until 1997 and was declassified as a mental disorder only in 2001. Social attitudes towards homosexuality remain generally closed, in part due to the traditional Confucian emphasis on having children.
The court case refers to controversial rules introduced by the media regulator in June, banning online audiovisual content that portrays “abnormal sexual relations or behaviour” such as incest, sexual perversion, sexual harassment, sexual abuse, sexual violence – and homosexuality.