China: Social Media, Films Censored Around Pride Month

Click to expand Image A same-sex couple hold hands during an event to raise awareness of gay rights in Hong Kong on May 25, 2019. © 2026 Philip Fong/AFP via Getty Images (New York) – The censorship of prominent social media accounts, foreign films, and events with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) themes around Pride month illustrates the deteriorating rights situation for LGBT people in China, Human Rights Watch said today. A number of these events were organized by foreign embassies and cultural institutes. “Under Xi Jinping, the Chinese government’s intensifying repression and promotion of normative gender and sexuality has resulted in shrinking spaces for LGBT people,” said Yalkun Uluyol, China researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Almost three decades since China decriminalized homosexuality, authorities’ paranoia about grassroots social movements has severely undermined LGBT people’s ability to gain visibility and equality.” In May 2026, the social media company WeChat suspended multiple public channels featuring LGBT content after they reported the response from the Research Office of China’s Supreme People’s Court to an online petition about legal protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. The response, though not legally binding, was the first recognition of its kind by a judicial body in China and was subsequently welcomed by LGBT activists and supporters. On June 17, WeChat also suspended the public account of Zhenzhen’s Rainbow (镇镇的彩虹), a channel of the Beijing-based Rainbow Violence Prevention Center, which provides support for LGBT people who have faced gender-based violence. WeChat—which, like all social media companies in China, is required by the Chinese authorities to actively monitor and censor users—said the channel had violated relevant regulations but provided no details. The Chinese government appears particularly concerned about LGBT groups’ potential foreign ties, Human Rights Watch said. On June 19, Red Note (小红书), a major Chinese social media company, reportedly banned the account of a Paris-based independent bookstore after it promoted a screening of a transgender-themed film in Paris. Red Note said the account had been banned but provided no further explanation. This came after the Institut Français (French Institute), the French government’s global cultural organization, canceled screenings of LGBT-themed films scheduled for June 6 and 7 in Beijing following police visits. The French newspaper Le Monde reported that the institute had concerns related to the “continued harassment of the cultural center and its Chinese staff.” The police had apparently demanded to check the identification cards of Chinese people who were going to attend the event, which would have intimidated the audience. On May 31, the German cultural center Goethe-Institut in Beijing abruptly announced that an in-person event on gender expression scheduled to take place that day had been moved online because the venue was “being blocked.” Chinese authorities also reportedly “demanded the cancellation” of the Rainbow Run, a sports event organized by the Finnish embassy as part of the European Union Delegation’s Beijing Diversity Week, Radio France International reported. The police reportedly told the organizers that “the race is contrary to Chinese culture” on May 29, and on May 30, the day of the race, the authorities tried to prevent some runners from leaving the Finnish embassy and followed and photographed about 15 diplomats participating in the run. The police interrogated two drag artists invited to Beijing Diversity Week for nearly seven hours at their hotels, the report said. Public events on the rights of LGBT people have also faced increasing scrutiny in Hong Kong, where such events were routine until June 2020, when Beijing imposed a sweeping human rights crackdown. Pink Dot, an organization that has organized large outdoor carnivals and concerts for LGBT communities since 2014, canceled its annual carnival planned for June 2026 for the second year in a row, with venue management citing “licensing issues.” The Chinese government decriminalized homosexuality in 1997 and removed it from the official list of mental disorders in 2001. However, China’s Civil Code defines marriage exclusively as between a man and a woman, and the government does not legally recognize same-sex partnerships. Chinese law also lacks explicit nondiscrimination protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. LGBT people have attempted to litigate for equality in court with limited success notwithstanding government control over the courts. In August 2024, a custody ruling by a Beijing court became the first legal recognition in China that a child can have two mothers. However, the petitioner, Didi, was denied contact with her son on the grounds that she did not give birth to him and is not genetically related to him. LGBT people in China have organized peaceful groups and activities since at least 1998, especially in major cities like Beijing, although they have always experienced police harassment. Access to the internet in the early 2000s provided LGBT people with a relatively free and anonymous public space to express themselves and connect with each other, while university campuses also became an important space for the LGBT movement in China around the 2010s. Notably, Sun Yat-sen University in Guangdong province became the first campus to host a registered student club in China focusing on LGBT issues. Since Xi came to power, and especially since 2015 when authorities waged a nationwide crackdown on human rights lawyers and arrested prominent feminists, LGBT activists and organizations have faced increasingly severe restrictions. The 2016 Charity Law and 2017 Law on the Management of Foreign NGO Activities further restricted the freedom of association of LGBT people in China by interfering with their ability to register as legal entities. Sun Yat-sen University students, who had been displaying large rainbow flags on campus beginning in 2006, ended the practice in 2017 following state pressure and the suspension of their social media accounts. Shanghai’s Pride parade organizers, who had held annual parades since 2009, ended their activities in 2020. These parades were the first of their kind in China. In 2023, the largest LGBT organization in China, Beijing LGBT Center, ceased its operations. The Chinese government’s suppression of free speech and association, along with its promotion of state-approved normative gender and sexuality, violates the rights of LGBT people and its international legal obligations, Human Rights Watch said. “LGBT people in China are entitled to equality and basic rights, not hostility and marginalization,” Uluyol said. “The Chinese government should immediately halt its censorship of LGBT content and events, while concerned governments, especially the European governments whose events were censored, should press the Chinese government to protect the rights of LGBT people.”