Gay books banned at Hong Kong book expo

A TAIWANESE LGBT publisher has been forced by organisers to stop selling several books at a major expo in Hong Kong.

G Books said in a Facebook post that it was ordered to pull nine titles from its stall at the Hong Kong Book Fair, as the Hong Kong Free Press reported.

Event organisers cited a regulation prohibiting the sale of Class II “indecent” books under Hong Kong’s Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance.

The order came despite all of the books being sealed and carrying warning labels – and despite the covers containing no explicit material.

For instance, the cover of one of the books, A Gentleman’s Wedding, shows only two grooms hugging.

“We’ve never been faced with this kind of order in previous exhibitions,” it wrote, as translated by HKFP. “We felt extremely stunned.”

“An annual cultural publishing fair in the ‘Pearl of the Orient’ . . . does not permit diversity of speech. Publishers cannot reach their readers in a proud way, without twisting or disguising themselves.”

Although LGBT treatment in Hong Kong is relatively good compared with that in other parts of Asia, it remains a touchy subject.

LGBT content containing no nudity, sex or other explicit material is often labelled “explicit” and censored or access to it restricted.