At least 80 gay men were taken away for questioning after raids on a popular Beijing cruising spot. The operation at a park in the Chinese capital's Haidian district over the weekend is reported to have been part of a security sweep ahead of China's National Day holiday. Guo Ziyang, a project manager at the Beijing Gay Working Group, told AFP "According to those who were there, riot and normal police detained more than 80 people on Sunday, made them register and took photos, and then they let them go. "On Monday night they again went to check IDs but I still don't know whether people were detained." There are also reports the men were forced to have blood tests and give fingerprints. China only decriminalised homosexuality in 1997 and it was seen as a mental illness until 2001.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 29th September 2010 - 12:49pm