The man who took these pictures was an early innovator in color photography and patronized by the Tsar, so he had a lot of opportunity. Some very gorgeous work, I love it.
Your source kinda says the opposite of what your title says. Different name, was arrested this time for raping a kid, not sentenced for death but committed suicide and even showing that while “sodomy” was illegal you would not get the death penalty for it.
Read further
Chinese society towards homosexuality, it was concluded that the level of acceptance was high and discrimination It is not common. For example, Zhang Zaizhou's book "The Ambiguous Process" refined China's attitude towards homosexuality into the word "ambiguous". But this was not the case after 1949. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, homosexuality was regarded as a "feudal remnant" and was eradicated from China's public discourse space along with polygamy, prostitution and other unmarried and abnormal sexual behaviors. Records of homosexuality during the Mao era are sparse and fragmented. At the same time, relevant agencies also began to persecute anyone who participated in homosexual behavior. Participants in homosexual behavior were accused of sodomy or hooliganism. It is not uncommon to see situations similar to those of Chen Baoping, Zhu Shouqing, and Zhu Zhenhua in the files I have seen. Some people were shot for anal sex. Zhu Zhenhua, who is kneeling in the top picture, has a cross on his name. This cross may represent a personal insult to the prisoner, or another possibility is that the cross was placed on his name only when he was executed.