Aug 08, 2008  |  By: LAURA DOUGLAS-BROWN  | COMMENTS     

Twelve years ago, as the Summer Olympics prepared to open in Atlanta, elected officials and gay leaders gathered for an Olympic first: a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the official opening of the Gay & Lesbian Visitor’s Center.

Throughout the 1996 Atlanta games, the center offered information, exhibits, concerts and theater productions where gay tourists and athletes from around the world mingled with the city’s highly visible gay and lesbian population.

Now, as the 2008 Summer Olympics open in Beijing, gay tourists and athletes are expecting a very different atmosphere in a nation where an international economy and cosmopolitan cities coexist with Communist government oversight and strict cultural traditions.

In March, outspoken AIDS activist Wan Yanhai sent an e-mail to Chinese HIV and gay Internet groups documenting six instances of alleged police raids on gay nightclubs, gathering places and bathhouses in Beijing.

Noting that a gay bathhouse in Shanghai also was shuttered, “evidence shows that this time, crackdowns are being carried out at the national level,” wrote Wan, the founder of the AIDS-related Aizhixing Institute, who has been jailed several times for criticizing the government’s response to HIV.

The report alarmed the blog Shanghaiist, which noted that “gay life in China has been enjoying pretty much unfettered development over the last decade, so it could be that we’re at a point in time when the authorities see the need to rein in the unbridled growth.

“Are the crackdowns being executed as part of a larger ‘spring cleaning exercise’ ahead of the Olympics so China would be able to project to the world its best image, whatever that means to the powers that be?” the blog asked. “Only time will tell.”

As the Olympics neared, Wan claimed that he and other human rights activists faced increased police scrutiny. But web sites for popular gay clubs in Beijing, like trendy Destination, indicated this week that they were open, and other activists said they have not experienced specific oppression.

“There has been a gradual tightening of control in and around Beijing, on all kinds of venues. It does not appear that gay venues are being singled out,” said Damien Lu, one of about 40 volunteers who run the Aibai Culture & Education Center, which operates two gay centers in China.

Lu is the only Aibai leader who does not live in China; a resident of Los Angeles, he visits China twice per year. Lu said he communicates with Wan “almost daily,” and is aware of the concerns he raised about police crackdowns.

“Most LGBT people in China disagree with him on this,” he said.

Edmund Yang, one of the owners of Destination, responded to an e-mail interview request by noting, “We’ll take a look at your questions before reverting to you.” Answers were not received before press time, but the club is clearly readying for an influx of visitors, posting a web site notice about “celebrating and enjoying the 2008 Beijing Olympics at the ‘bigger and better’ Destination.”

Meanwhile, concern over the conditions faced by gay citizens in China is among the factors that motivated the New York-based Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to include the issue, along with tips for covering gay athletes, in its new Olympic Media Resource Kit.

Conflicting influences

The Olympic Games have focused unprecedented world media attention on China, where the government is anxious to shed its image as an oppressive Communist state in favor of a modern country that has become an economic superpower.

But the Games have also become a focal point for criticism of Chinese policies, from environmental pollution in major cities like Beijing to alleged human rights abuses in Tibet and other areas.

The issues faced by gay and transgender citizens deserve similar scrutiny in a country where the government controls the media and limits freedom of speech and assembly, according to GLAAD.

“By weaving gay and transgender personal stories and issues into coverage of the Olympic Games, media will play a vital role for shining a spotlight on the current state of human rights in China,” the gay watchdog group argues in its media guide.

Homosexuality was not always curtailed in China.

“Remarkably, a calm and dispassionate attitude to the homosexual phenomenon was always prevalent in ancient China,” the state-run newspaper China Daily reported in a 2004 article. “There was neither eulogy, nor criticism. It seemed to do no harm in maintaining traditional family ethics.”

The article, one of many focusing on gay issues now published by government-run media outlets, relied on research by renowned Chinese sexologist Li Yinhe in her book “History of Chinese Homosexuality.” Li, a researcher at the Chinese ...