[chimeracoder]

> Based on the article, it appears that the author wasn't jailed for writing gay sex scenes, but rather for selling books with sex scenes of any kind. Apparently China has a law against selling pornographic books of any kind, and this author ran afoul of it.

All over the world, sex-negative laws are disproportionately enforced against queer people (and specifically queer people of color). Sure, the statue here applies to all pornography/erotica, but that doesn't negate OP's point that it is not safe to be queer (or to produce content targeted at a queer audience).

[downandout]

but that doesn't negate OP's point that it is not safe to be queer

Nor did I say that it did. In fact I said the opposite, in the very first words of my comment..."What you're saying may well be true...".

[chimeracoder]

You said

> but it has no bearing on the case in this article

Except it very much does have bearing on this case.

[downandout]

Except it very much does have bearing on this case.

That's your assumption, but without hard data about how many people have been sentenced for distributing gay pornography books vs. straight pornography books, it is exactly that...an assumption.