May 20, 2005 | Sex & Society

China blocks gay info site

China has been closing down adult websites left and right for almost a year; but now it has expanded the crackdown and is blocking a popular gay information site which has neither adult nor political content. 

According to site manager Damien Lu, over 50,000 Chinese a day visited GayChinese.net before the government started blocking it last month. Lu has not been provided with a reason for the government censorship.  "We have no content that violates the Chinese government's rules," he said,  "None of our staff have been contacted by the police."

Online since 1999, GayChinese.net, which is based in the United States,  offers gay-oriented news and HIV prevention information and has forums on partner and family relations. It is a particularly important resource in China where many people are ignorant about HIV and the Internet is often the only place gay men have to turn in China's sexually repressive society. 

China, a Communist dictatorship with little regard for human rights and liberties, is the United States' largest trading partner after Canada.

• Chinese government blocks gay information site [AVN Online]
• China pulls plug on gay Web site [Gay.com]