Chinese court agrees to review ‘gay relationships’ video ban
(ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/Getty Images)
A 30-year-old man in Shanghai has submitted a successful legal challenge against China’s ban on video services streaming gay content.
The ban, which came into action in July, forbade video streaming sites from showing content which contained so-called “abnormal sexual behaviour”.
In a bid to query the ban, 30-year-old Fan Chunlin submitted a case to Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, insisting that they clarify under what policy videos depicting gay relationships are banned.
The court agreed to review the case and said that they would clarify their position within six months, reported state media.
“We expect to lose somehow, because this is a national government department [we are challenging],” said supporter Yanzi Peng, founder of LGBT Rights Advocacy of China to The Hollywood Reporter.
“But we still wanted to file the case because we have to show the position from our community and to tell society that we are not abnormal,” he added.
Although LGB relationships have been banned from Chinese TV for almost a decade, video streaming sites were given free reign until the measure came into action.
A total of 84 topics are banned under the ruling, including “luxurious lifestyles” and “superstition”.
As a consequence, 291 video-streaming platforms were closed and almost 10,000 journalists were fired.
