Lesbian sues government over textbooks
Print Edition
A Chinese lesbian yesterday took the government to court over textbooks describing homosexuality as a 鈥減sychological disorder.鈥
Qiu Bai, 21, a student at the Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou City, brought the action against the ministry of education, demanding that it give her details of how it approved materials and how they could be changed.
China decriminalized homosexuality in 1997, and removed it from the list of mental illnesses four years later.
Qiu鈥檚 team showed reporters a manual, 鈥淪tudent Psychological Health,鈥 published in 2015 by the prestigious Renmin University and distributed to students nationwide.
鈥淭he most commonly encountered forms of sexual deviance are homosexuality and the sick addictions of transvestism, transsexuality, fetishism, sadism, voyeurism and exhibitionism,鈥 it read.
Other psychology textbooks have similar content.
Qiu, who uses a pseudonym, said that she hoped to make sure such materials 鈥渘o longer harm students,鈥 adding that she had come under pressure from her university over the case, but it had been mitigated by coverage in Chinese media.
Holding a large rainbow flag, she said she was 鈥渆xcited鈥 by her 鈥渇irst opportunity to have a face-to-face dialogue with the ministry of education.鈥
Supporters brandished signs outside the Fengtai district court in Beijing reading: 鈥淲e want a fair judgment鈥 and 鈥淗omosexuals must gain visibility.鈥
Attitudes are changing in major Chinese cities, but homosexuals are still widely subject to social and family pressures in the country.
Often without siblings, due to the country鈥檚 one-child policy, they must contend with parental insistence on offspring, and so frequently resign themselves to heterosexual marriages while keeping their true sexual orientation secret.
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