China Files: Video of China’s LGBT community getting free hugs goes viral amid backlash over ‘homosexual content’ censorship

Screengrab via Weibo video.
Screengrab via Weibo video.

After Weibo announced a “clean-up” campaign to remove “homosexual” content from the microblogging platform, many people took to the social media site to make their dissatisfaction known under the tag “I am gay.”

Though the social media site later backpedalled amid the backlash,  one response that continues to set Weibo alight is this six-minute video of a blindfold social experiment.

Set to Aerosmith’s I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing, the video features members of China’s LGBT community standing in public areas blindfolded with their arms outstretched and wearing t-shirt saying: “I am gay, would you hug me?”

The hugs roll in thick and fast, old and young, some awkward and some enthusiastic.

The person who uploaded the video claims to be a host for an internet radio station called Bandao FM.

“If I don’t say anything now, then there won’t be a chance to say anything in the future,” they wrote.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PudqGRTwG3Y

Weibo announced on Monday that the clean-up will focus on violent or pornographic content, and not target homosexual content. The post then added “thank you everyone for your discussions and suggestions.”

The announcement to censor gay content in the first place was seen as the latest sign of a crackdown by the ruling Communist Party to purge the internet of content deviating from its “core values of socialism” while stifling criticism of social norms and established policies.

Although China decriminalized homosexuality in 1997, conservative attitudes remain widespread.



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