New York, June 26 (IANS) Human Rights Watch (HRW), a US-based advocacy group, expressed grave concern over Chinese authorities’ censorship of prominent social media accounts, foreign films, and events with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) themes around Pride month, saying such measures reflect the deteriorating rights situation for LGBT people in China.

According to the HRW, several of these events were organised by foreign embassies and cultural institutes.

“Under Xi Jinping, the Chinese government’s intensifying repression and promotion of normative gender and sexuality has resulted in shrinking spaces for LGBT people,” said Yalkun Uluyol, China researcher at HRW.

“Almost three decades since China decriminalised homosexuality, authorities’ paranoia about grassroots social movements has severely undermined LGBT people’s ability to gain visibility and equality,” he added.

The rights body said that Red Note, a major Chinese social media company, reportedly banned the account of a Paris-based independent bookstore on June 19 after it promoted a screening of a transgender-themed film in Paris. Red Note confirmed that the account had been banned but provided no further explanation.

“This came after the Institut Francais (French Institute), the French government’s global cultural organisation, cancelled screenings of LGBT-themed films scheduled for June 6 and 7 in Beijing following police visits,” Human Rights Watch stated.

Citing French newspaper Le Monde, the rights body said that the French institute had raised concerns over the “continued harassment of the cultural centre and its Chinese staff.” The police, it said, had apparently demanded to check the identification cards of Chinese people who were going to attend the event, which would have intimidated the audience.

Earlier on May 31, the German cultural centre Goethe-Institut in Beijing abruptly announced that an in-person event on gender expression had been moved online because the venue was “being blocked.”

Since Chinese President Xi Jinping came to power, and especially after 2015, the HRW noted that the Chinese authorities waged a nationwide crackdown on human rights lawyers and arrested prominent feminists, while LGBT activists and organisations have faced increasingly severe restrictions.

The Chinese government’s suppression of free speech and association, along with its promotion of state-approved normative gender and sexuality, violates the rights of LGBT people and its international legal obligations, the rights body added.

“LGBT people in China are entitled to equality and basic rights, not hostility and marginalisation. The Chinese government should immediately halt its censorship of LGBT content and events, while concerned governments, especially the European governments whose events were censored, should press the Chinese government to protect the rights of LGBT people,” said China researcher Uluyol.

–IANS

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