Apr 04, 2008  |  By: CHRIS JOHNSON  | COMMENTS     

Gay activists in China are hoping to use the international attention from this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing to showcase their fight for greater acceptance.

One such effort from a gay group involves a Beijing exhibition displaying 10,000 petition signatures from Chinese citizens who support the legal recognition of same-sex marriage. The signatures are written in Chinese characters on brightly colored banners and notebooks and are showcased prominently in an exhibition room.

Bin Xu, a lesbian and head of the Chinese gay advocacy group known as Common Language, said her organization staged the exhibition with other groups in China.
“These signatures visibly demonstrate that love and commitment are values we all share and it is our hope the government will legally recognize same-sex couples,” she said in a phone interview with the Blade from China.

The display made its debut March 23 at a newly opened gay community center in Beijing. Xu called the center “the first of its kind in China” and said the center was opened to the public on the same day that Common Language launched its signature campaign.

Gay organizations collected the signatures in large Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai. More than 100 domestic and foreign visitors have seen the exhibit. Visitors have included gay activists, scholars, journalists and “a consortium of supportive lawyers,” Xu said.

A closing date for the exhibition has not been set but the signatures will be on display for at least a month. Gay activists chose this time to create the display because the Olympics are giving China heightened international attention.

The exhibition of signatures is not the only effort that Common Language has undertaken to bring attention to its cause. On Feb. 14, (Valentine’s Day), gay community organizers offered roses to passersby on Beijing streets and wished people success in love and relationships. The advocates also asked people to support legal recognition of same-sex marriage.

“Valentine’s Day we think is a good date to really demonstrate the love between same-sex couples and also to ask for support from the general public,” Xu said.

The activist said that members of the gay community have only recently been giving “a stronger voice” in efforts to gain more rights. Gay people previously had mostly showed their support for initiatives on the Internet, she said.

Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said people living in China don’t enjoy free speech as it would be understood in the United States and said “there’s a lot of temperature taking” when the Chinese people decide whether or not to express their opinions.

“There are times when the climate is calmer … and people can write those kinds of petitions are have those kinds of public gatherings, and there are other times when they really can’t,” she said.

Richardson said Common Language and other gay groups are being “very brave” by conducting demonstrations as major events approach like the Olympics and the meeting of the National People’s Congress. She said at these times the Chinese government is less willing to look the other way for dissidents.

China has recently endured increased condemnation from the international community for its human rights abuses, especially for its crackdown on protesters in Tibet. The number of deaths resulting from those protests and reports on the severity of the government crackdown that followed vary among sources and news outlets but Chinese state-controlled media pegs the number at around 20, while the Tibet’s government-in-exile says hundreds have been killed and thousands injured.

As a result, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced last month that she would boycott the Olympics’ opening ceremony. French President Nicholas Sarkozy said later that he’s considering not attending. Some U.S. lawmakers are urging President Bush to boycott the ceremony, but he plans to attend.

Xu said she is “a little bit” concerned about a hostile reaction from the Chinese government in response to the exhibition. She said her group has not yet encountered hostility, but she recalled a time in 2005 when a gay and lesbian culture festival was shutdown by Beijing police. Common Language “did have a lot of concern [that] police would come and crack down” on the exhibition, she said.

Xu said she does not expect that these efforts will result in the Chinese government approving same-sex marriage this year. The efforts are geared more toward educating the public about concerns from the gay community, she said.

Xu said the treatment of the gay community in China is “very different” from some countries in the West. She said the public’s attitude is “not too hostile, but not friendly ...