Gay student sues ministry over textbooks
Print Edition
A STUDENT in south China’s Guangdong Province is suing the Ministry of Education over textbooks that describe homosexuality as a “treatable disorder.”
Chen Qiuyan, a 21-year-old student at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, wants the university library to stop carrying psychiatry and psychology textbooks that say homosexuals have “mental or physical issues” and need to be “healed.”
The Beijing No.1 Intermediate People’s Court has accepted the case.
“Homosexuals are already under great pressure,” Chen said. “Additional stigma from textbooks will cause direct harm. The ministry should have a duty to monitor and supervise such content.”
She said she was shocked when she came across what was written in the textbooks.
Almost every one categorized homosexuality as a mental disorder, with some even suggesting electroshock therapy as a “cure.”
Seeking answers about her sexuality, she had consulted the books in preference to going online.
“I was terrified when reading the books,” she told CNN. “What would my friends and classmates think of me if they read them?”
What she read prompted her to see a psychologist, Chen said.
She has since come out to friends and the court case comes after months of petitioning local authorities and courts in Guangzhou about the books, which Chen says are outdated even by China’s laws.
In 2001, homosexuality was removed from an official list of mental illnesses that required clinical treatment. That followed a 1997 decision to decriminalize homosexual acts.
In a recent survey of 90 psychiatry and psychology textbooks by the Gay and Lesbian Campus Association of China, 31 discussed whether homosexuality was a disease. All were published after 2001.
Chen said the court’s acceptance of her case was a “remarkable victory” in her quest to make sure homosexuality is accurately represented in textbooks.
“It doesn’t matter if I win or lose or we settle outside the court,” she told CNN. “What matters is that the Ministry of Education will have to respond to the issue regarding textbooks.”
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