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Gay World News: Dozens of gay men have been detained by police at a popular cruising spot in Beijing.
Homosexuality is legal in China
Gay clamp down in Beijing
28 September 2010
Officers and riot police descended on Mudanyuan, a popular open-air gay cruising spot last Sunday and Monday.
More than eighty gay men were arrested and taken to a police station where they were required to show their identity papers and have their photograph taken.
They were also made to have a blood test and to leave their fingerprints, before being released.
Beijing police spokesman Zi Xiangdong said that the operation was part of a citywide public security inspection prior to China’s National Day holiday, which celebrates the founding of Communist China.
He did not say which regulations had been broken by the men.
Guo Ziyang, of the Beijing Gay Working Group, a gay rights organisation, told news agency AFP: “The deep-seated reason is that society has not provided homosexuals with a tolerant environment.”
It is estimated that there are about 30 million gays and lesbians in China – 2.3% of the population. However the figure is probably much higher as homosexuality is still a taboo subject and many have not come out.
Homosexual acts in China have been legal since 1997 and there is an equal age of consent.
Homosexuality was removed from the official Chinese list of mental illnesses in 2001.
