Ex-cop is all for rainbows

Former policemen Ma Baoli's app Blued is a haven for the LGBTQ community

Beijing: Browsing the internet as a young policeman in China, Ma Baoli recalls the sheer volume of web pages telling him he was a pervert, diseased and in need of treatment — simply because he was gay. “I felt extremely lonely after I became aware of my sexual orientation,” says Ma, at the time a newly-minted officer in a small coastal city.

Two decades later, the softly spoken 43-year-old now helms Blued, one of the world’s largest dating platforms for gay men. The app went public last July with an $85 million debut on Nasdaq, a remarkable tech success story from a country that classified homosexuality as a mental illness as recently as 2001.

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Parent company BlueCity’s sunlit Beijing campus teems with young and casually dressed programmers who hold meetings in rooms named after Oscar Wilde and other prominent LGBTQ figures from around the world.

The office boasts rainbow unicorn mascots, gender-neutral toilets and photos of Ma’s meetings with dignitaries, including Chinese premier Li Keqiang.

Ma’s journey to the apex of China’s tech industry began in the early 2000s when he began publishing Danlan.org, a blog about his life as a gay man. There were few places in China at the time for gay men to socialise, Ma says, adding that “people would write on the walls of public toilets, saying meet here at this and that time.” “Everyone was scared of being found out by others.” Ma’s blog gradually expanded into an influential online forum for LGBTQ people in China to share lifestyle articles, health advice and short stories.

“I thought I could build a website, to tell gay people like me… you don’t need to feel inferior, you don’t need to be suicidal,” he told AFP. Discussion of LGBT issues remains contentious in China, with activists complaining of tightened restrictions on public discussion in recent years. BlueCity runs an online platform that sells HIV diagnostic kits and brokers consultations with doctors. It also works with local authorities to direct users to free testing centres.