• kristina [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
      15·
      1 year ago

      Dug into it, and there wasn’t any reasons given, however some people that used to go there speculated the following:

      • The US Consulate was invited to speak at the center a couple of times… which seems uh… like an extremely bad decision. I’ve talked to people in China involved in centers and that is a HUGE no-no.

      • There were conflicts with neighboring buildings that led to them being kicked out of their building.

        • kristina [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
          10·
          1 year ago

          Yeah there are plenty of groups that still operate in Beijing, obviously, at least 10 major ones from what I can tell. So while it does suck, its overblown that people think this is the end of LGBT activities in Beijing in western media.

      • Putinbot [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        6·
        1 year ago

        Unfortunately, a co-founder of the Beijing LGBT Center, Wan Yanhai, had ties to the NED, which the government has been cracking down on more recently. Yanhai had a fellowship with them. He was also one of the signatories of the Charter 08 manifesto, which called for the end of CCP rule and privatization of all state-owned enterprises. Also doesn’t really help that there are still some out of touch socially conservative boomers in the government, who believe LGBT activism to be a western plot. China is still overall making progress in LGBT rights, especially with younger Chinese being generally very supportive, but there are still occasional setbacks along the way like this.

    • GaveUp [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
      8·
      1 year ago

      I’m pretty sure the one you’re thinking about allegedly had a director with ClA connections which was the stated reason for the shutdown

    • kristina [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
      7·
      1 year ago

      Yeah apparently. Wasn’t aware of that, but they have a research paper floating around on Chinese LGBT statistics. No western agency discusses the reasoning for the shut down, which is usually given. Shanghai Pride and many other orgs are still operating though. I’ll dig a bit to see if I can turn up anything.