Quartz: China’s LGBT people came out as a protest against an online ban on gay content. And it worked

On Friday (April 13), Weibo—one of the country’s most popular social networks—issued a statement that it had begun a three-month “clean-up” campaign on manga, games, short videos and other visual content relating to pornography, violence, and homosexuality. The crackdown was aimed at creating a “clear and harmonious” community in accordance with China’s new cybersecurity law, the site said, with more than 100 accounts and 56,000 posts touching on the banned themes removed so far. [...]

The ban on gay content is considered by many as yet another sign of stigmatization against LGBT people in China, more than a decade after the country removed homosexuality from an official list of mental illness. Authorities have issued bans on the portrayal of same-sex relationships on television and online series, and China’s official textbooks contain homophobic content. LGBT events are the routine subject of government crackdowns.

But Weibo’s crackdown backfired after tens of thousands of users protested against the LGBT ban under the hashtag “I am gay.” Many gay people posted their photos with the hashtag, and sometimes with rainbow emojis. One of the most shared posts is from an activist who uploaded a video from a public event where gay people, wearing rainbow-colored eye patches, asked passers-by to give them a hug. He wrote,”If I don’t say anything today, there probably won’t be any chance to do so in the future.” [...]

The crackdown also spurred people to speak out in real life. Hundreds of people participated in a pride run event in Nanjing on Saturday (April 14), a day after Weibo’s announcement of the ban—a public display of activism that is becoming almost extinct in China. The event had in fact been planned and approved by local authorities before the Weibo ban was announced, but it took on greater meaning as a result of the crackdown, organizers said in a Weibo post (link in Chinese).”This is the kind of day worth remembering for a lifetime,” they wrote, adding that Weibo shut down the event’s live stream. Participants chanted slogans including “we have rainbows and courage” on the route, they said.

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