• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest which gives you limited access.

    By joining you will gain full access to thousands of Videos, Pictures & Much More.

    Membership is absolutely FREE and registration is FAST & SIMPLE so please, Register Today and join one of the friendliest communities on the net!



    You must be at least 18 years old to legally access this forum.
  • Hello Guest,

    Thanks for remaining an active member on GayHeaven. We hope you've enjoyed the forum so far.

    Our records indicate that you have not posted on our forums in several weeks. Why not dismiss this notice & make your next post today by doing one of the following:
    • General Discussion Area - Engage in a conversation with other members.
    • Gay Picture Collections - Share any pictures you may have collected from blogs and other sites. Don't know how to post? Click HERE to visit our easy 3-steps tutorial for picture posting.
    • Show Yourself Off - Brave enough to post your own pictures or videos? Let us see, enjoy & comment on that for you.
    • Gay Clips - Start sharing hot video clips you may have. Don't know how to get started? Click HERE to view our detailed tutorial for video posting.
    As you can see there are a bunch of options mentioned in here and much more available for you to start participating today! Before making your first post, please don't forget to read the Forum Rules.

    Active and contributing members will earn special ranks. Click HERE to view the full list of ranks & privileges given to active members & how you can easily obtain them.

    Please do not flood the forum with "Thank you" posts. Instead, please use the "thanks button"

    We Hope you enjoy the forum & thanks for your efforts!
    The GayHeaven Team.
  • Dear GayHeaven users,

    We are happy to announce that we have successfully upgraded our forum to a new more reliable and overall better platform called XenForo.
    Any feedback is welcome and we hope you get to enjoy this new platform for years and years to come and, as always, happy posting!

    GH Team

China's Sina Weibo backs down on gay content ban

slimjim

Super Vip
Joined
Oct 25, 2008
Messages
86,564
Reaction score
138,241
Points
208
Chinese social media network Sina Weibo has backtracked from a controversial gay content ban after a massive outcry.
Last Friday the microblogging platform said that posts related to homosexuality would be taken down. It prompted a deluge of posts from outraged netizens protesting against the decision. On Monday, Sina Weibo said it would reverse the ban. Often described as China's answer to Twitter, Sina Weibo is one of the most popular social networks in the country.

What happened?

Last Friday Sina Weibo made a surprise announcement that it was launching a "clean-up campaign".
It said that for the next three months, the platform would remove content including images, videos, text and cartoons that were related to pornography, violence, or homosexuality.
"This is to further ensure a clear and harmonious society and environment," the network said in its statement, adding that it had already scrubbed more than 50,000 posts by then.
Sina Weibo said it was initiating the clean-up because of stricter internet laws put in place last year, but it did not explain why it was only acting now. Chinese authorities have embarked on a campaign in recent years aimed at purging internet content that it deems inappropriate.
By early Monday morning, the most censored search term on Weibo was "homosexuality", according to censorship tracker FreeWeibo.

How did netizens react? Over the weekend many in the LGBT community took to the network to protest against the decision, using hashtags such as #IAmGay# and #ScumbagSinaHelloIAmGay#. Some tried testing the ban and uploaded pictures of themselves with partners or gay friends or relatives. Among them was LGBT rights activist Pu Chunmei, whose impassioned post accompanied with pictures of her with her gay son quickly went viral.

Ms Pu posted a picture with the caption: "Be yourself, don't hide."
"My son and I love our country... we are proud to be Chinese!" she said. "But today I saw the announcement by Sina Weibo...as a source of news, it is discriminating and attacking minorities, and this is violence!" Another widely-shared post was of an undated video showing a social experiment where gay volunteers stood in the street inviting passers-by to hug them. The poster claimed the original video had been taken down, and said "today I couldn't help myself but post this again". As of early Monday morning many such posts were still online, as censors appeared to struggle to keep up with the deluge. Then Sina Weibo made another announcement: it said its clean-up would "no longer apply to homosexual content". "We thank everyone for their discussion and suggestions," the company added. Netizens cheered the reversal. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with being homosexual...we hope that Weibo will not perpetrate such discrimination in the future," said one user.
What is China's stance on LGBT rights?
Homosexuality was decriminalised more than two decades ago. Conservative attitudes still prevail in many parts of the country, but that has not stopped the LGBT community and activists from having a strong and vibrant presence.

Though gay marriage is officially not allowed, some gay couples have held ceremonial celebrations to raise awareness
But in recent months, some began to fear that this presence was starting to be curtailed by conservative forces. Some saw the Sina Weibo ban as part of a larger trend of sidelining the LGBT community, including a move last year by an official media watchdog that deemed homosexual content as "pornographic and vulgar".
The official Chinese government response has always been "neither supportive nor against" homosexuality, where it "does not promote" LGBT rights, activist Li Tingting told BBC Chinese.
There was no official reaction from the Chinese government to Sina Weibo's initial ban, nor to the subsequent reversal.
Additional reporting by Gwyneth Ho.

Source: BBC website:

http://anon.projectarchive.net/?http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-43779650
 
Last edited:

Stonecold

GTM Movies
Staff member
Joined
May 18, 2009
Messages
15,124
Reaction score
50,259
Points
391
I would think China would encourage Gay rights since they have a shortage of women. There are 120 males for every 100 women.
 
Last edited:
Top