The history of Hu Tianbao (胡天保) has been largely forgotten by the Chinese.
Tu Er Shen (兔兒神 or 兔神) is a Chinese deity who manages the love and sex between homosexual men. His name literally means "rabbit deity".
According to Zi Bu Yu (子不語), a book written by Yuan Mei (袁枚, a Qing dynasty writer), Tu Er Shen was a man called Hu Tianbao (胡天保).
Hu Tianbao was originally a man who fell in love with a very handsome imperial inspector of Fujian Province. One day Hu Tianbao was caught peeping on the inspector through a bathroom wall, at which point he confessed his reluctant affections for the other man. The imperial inspector had Hu Tianbao sentenced to death by beating.
One month after Hu Tianbao's death, he is said to have appeared to a man from his hometown in a dream, claiming that since his crime was one of love, the underworld officials decided to right the injustice by appointing him the god and safeguarder of homosexual affections.
After his dream the man erected a shrine to Hu Tianbao, which became very popular in Fujian province, so much so that in late Qing times, the cult of Hu Tianbao was targeted for extermination by the Qing government.
A slang term for homosexuals in late imperial China was Tuzi(兔子)(Rabbits) which is why Hu Tianbao is referred to as the RABBIT GOD, though in fact he has nothing to do with rabbits and should not be confused with TU-ER-YE (兔儿爷）the rabbit on the moon.
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