Gay and lesbian activists in China have launched an exhibition in the hope of capitalising on international attention in the lead-up to the Olympic Games.

Advocacy group Common Language has installed the exhibition at a new gay community centre in Beijing. The centerpiece displays 10,000 signatures from people supporting legal recognition for same-sex marriage in China.

“These signatures visibly demonstrate that love and commitment are values we all share, and it is our hope the government will legally recognise same-sex couples,” the head of Common Language, Bin Xu, said, reports The Washington Blade.

In related news, China’s most prominent HIV/AIDS activist, Hu Jia, was sentenced to three and a half years jail last week for ‘inciting subversion of state power’ in online articles he had written and via interviews with foreign media.

Activists fear that the government are clamping down on dissidents before the Beijing Olympics in August this year.

Wan Yanhai, one of China’s most outspoken AIDS activists, recently issued an update of current police actions against the GLBTI community, in which he notes that three gay bathhouses have been closed down, and two gay nightclubs raided. In addition, Beijing’s popular cruising site, Dongdan Park, was also raided, with 40 men taken in for questioning. The park is now monitored nightly.

Yanhai said that GLBTI activists have also been visited at their homes and questioned.

“Evidence shows that this time crackdowns are being carried out at a national level within the space of one month,” Yanhai told the online forum Shanghaiist.com.

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