Following a tip-off, the police raided a gay party held in a bungalow in northern Mumbai early on Sunday and detained 133 people – including several celebrities – on the charge of indecent behaviour, two party organisers for not having the requisite liquor licence, and the DJ for not having the licence to play music beyond permissible hours.
Although a local newspaper reported that Huangpu police acted after receiving complaints that the bar was staging sex shows, the claim has been vehemently refuted by everyone present on the day, according to the Shanghaiist blog.
Police say they were investigating the bar for staging "sex shows"; bar's DJ says he believes the raid to be the result of fierce competition among local bars.
The Atlanta City Council unanimously voted to pay US$1 million to settle a lawsuit filed by patrons of a gay bar that was raided by police who claimed their civil rights were violated when dozens of officers subjected them to excessive force and homophobic abuse during the raid last year.
Malaysia's The Star newspaper on Feb 4 reported that police raided two gay joints, a massage parlour and a fitness centre, and arrested 19 men including a 65-year-old grandfather.
Patrons of the bar say they were made - some by physical force - to lay face down on the bar's filthy floors for up to two hours while police officers made anti-gay slurs.
Following recent raids and arrests at saunas, clubs and cruising spots, China's best known AIDS activist Wan Yanhai who circulated reports earlier this week about the government's crackdown tells Fridae's Beijing correspondent Dinah Gardner about the local situation.
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