Chinese government forces Beijing LGBT Center to close
The government of Chinese President Xi Jinping continued its crackdown on the country’s LGBTQ minority, abruptly forcing closure of the Beijing LGBT Center on Monday.
In a brief message posted to the Sina Weibo microblogging website and on its WeChat account the center stated: “We very regretfully announce, due to forces beyond our control, the Beijing LGBT Center will stop operating today.” With its closure, the Beijing LGBT Center, which has been operating for 15 years since it was founded in 2008, leaves China’s LGBTQ people with few resources to turn to.
In November 2021, prominent LGBTQ equality rights legal group LGBT Rights Advocacy China, co-founded by Peng Yanzi and A. Qiang in the city of Guangzhou in 2013, and focused its efforts on securing legal rights for LGBTQ individuals through strategic lawsuits in China’s legal system, indefinitely suspended operations.
That suspension taking place after previously in July 2021, the Cyberspace Administration of China permanently disabled and deleted dozens of LGBTQ student organizations’ WeChat accounts across China.
