Lesbian dating startup isn’t afraid of China’s new anti-gay censorship

It’s been a couple of weeks since Chinese authorities clamped down yet again on what can be depicted in TV shows, this time zeroing in on “vulgar, immoral, and unhealthy content” that includes dramas showing “abnormal sexual relationships and behaviors, such as incest, same-sex relationships, sexual perversion, sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexual violence, and so on.”

That edict effectively banned a popular 15-part online series called Addicted about romance between four gay high schoolers in China.

That should put Cathy Yang’s startup in the firing line. She works at a social network that caters to China’s lesbians. It’s called Lesdo. It’s not just a dating app. The young company – of which she’s a co-founder – has also created its own web dramas.

A scene from ‘Miss You Always’, a mini movie made by Lesdo.

And yet Cathy says she’s “quite optimistic” that the recent strides in acceptance for LGBTQ individuals in China won’t be wiped out by this month’s move by authorities.

“This is not the first time they’ve released something like that,” she says, referring to the blocking of portrayals of same-sex love and relationships on the web. “They do this every year. And every year it’s about the same. And if you examine these protocols that they’re giving – it’s impossible for execution.”

Protective

The Lesdo team has had a hand in two made-for-the-web movies so far, both focusing on women in lesbian relationships. Both remain online.

It got way too political.

Cathy reckons the banned series, Addicted, got blocked for reasons other than it showing young guys falling for each other and hooking up.

“A lot of people, they thought this was a signal that authorities are banning the gay themed productions, but actually that is not the case. Because if you look really closely into the storyline, what the story is really about, it’s not just about gay men. It also talked about – you know, one of the leading characters of this show, his father is a government official in the Communist party, and apparently there was quite a bit of corruption going on. So he and his family is rich.”

Some of the Lesdo founders and co-founders. Cathy is pictured bottom right.

“And so it got political,” she stresses. “It got way too political.”

And that rarely ends well in China.

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