ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on various case studies and ethnographic videos gathered throughout extensive Beijing-based fieldwork in order to describe how LGBT+ groups in Mainland China seek to create spaces as collective sites of interaction and performance, and how, throughout the process, they approach the engaging of LGBT+ people and allies.
The chapter briefly hones in on the nascence of the LGBT+ movement in China and shows its initial focus on community building – its “inward” focus. It then discusses efforts of LGBT+ activists to empower and incite activism within their constituents, and to move “outward” to reclaim a more central space for LGBT+ issues and persons in society at large, a process informed by general attitudes and tendencies observed within their constituencies. Finally, the chapter indicates how organizational cultures within the LGBT+ world coexist and overlap against the background of the overall Chinese regulatory and political framework, giving insights into how spaces are claimed and appropriated by LGBT+ communities.
