Shanghaiist alerted me (a week ago, oops) to a recent protest in a public park down in the metropolis of Guangzhou (you may know it as Canton).  Public parks are the traditional meeting place for gay men in China (the world?) and it seems that People’s Park in Guangzhou is no exception to this, over 100 gay men meet there nightly.  China Daily wrote about the incident.

On a recent night the police tried to get a group of gay men to leave the park.  This was ostensibly because gay men bring crime to the park, the police said there had been incidents of harassement and petty theft.  The gay men countered that they are more often the victims of crime in the park, which seems more likely to me.  The standoff was successful and the police left the gay men at the park.  Kind of a victory, I guess.  A video of the protest was uploaded to Tudou, a Chinese version of Youtube.

As happy as I am that gay men are speaking up for themselves and fighting “the Man,” I really wish that Chinese gay men had better places to hang out.  And I’m not just talking about bars and clubs, which a city as big as Guangzhou is certain to have.  Why not have community centers, support groups, restaurants/cafes owned by people in the LGBT community, or other safe places for the gay community that don’t bring to mind anonymous sex behind a bush?  The China Daily article mentions that volunteers go to People’s Park in Guangzhou to teach others about safe sex.  A good start, but I think there needs to be more.  If Chinese society won’t let gay men come out of the closet let’s at least make a closet that is indoors, well-light, supporting, and comfortable.