I’m not sure if this is the correct sub for this and apologies if it’s in the wrong place.
Okay so first things first - this is a clearly bullshit article. It’s published by a US state propaganda mouthpiece, and consists of about 30% “a thing happened and we have no information about why” and 70% screed against evil CCP. I have the critical reading skills to understand that there’s nothing of value here.
However, I can’t read Mandarin so my ability to actually find out what’s really going on is essentially non-existent. I was hoping maybe someone here could help me get more information on what this LGBT center was doing and why it was shuttered so I can file that away for future discussions with my queer acquaintances that are less open minded about China. Was it a front for US NGOs to push capitalism with a rainbow flag? Was it something completely mundane like not paying taxes or filing some paperwork? Is it just an unfortunate case of LGBT people being mistaken for western chauvinism again?
I don’t see why it’s insulting unless it’s meant as an insult. Being a comrade, being a homosexual, neither of these are bad things to be.
It’s common for people in China in the past to call strangers by the term comrade, whether they’re CPC members or not, though it’s not as common nowadays. However, official news have always used comrade when mentioning party members.
Even though “comrade” can also mean someone with the same ideals, it’s like saying “gay” also means happy. So when some people use it to refer to homosexuals, they’re not insulting homosexuals but the CPC.
The organization mentioned in the article was called “北京同志中心”, which they mean to be “Beijing LGBT Center”, but I would think it meant “Beijing Comrade Center” if I didn’t know it was LGBT-related. They renamed to “北同文化”(Beijing "同“ Culture) later probably to avoid this. “同” in Chinese means same, and can be short for “同性恋”(homosexual).