Man sues clinic for trying to ‘turn him straight’
Print Edition
IN a landmark case in Beijing yesterday, a gay man was suing a psychological clinic for administering electric shock treatment intended to turn him straight. His suit also includes Chinese Internet search engine Baidu for advertising the center.
Homosexuality was de-classified as a mental disorder in China in 2001 but widespread intolerance toward gays and lesbians remains, and activists are hailing the case as a significant step forward.
The plaintiff says the Xinyu Piaoxiang clinic in the southwestern city of Chongqing traumatized him when he was given electric shocks after being told to have sexual thoughts involving men.
Yang Teng, 30, told The Associated Press that the therapy given to him included hypnosis and electric shocks and he was left physically and mentally hurt. He said he voluntarily underwent the therapy in February following pressure from his parents to get married and have a child.
“My hometown is a small city, people there still care about carrying on the family line,” Yang said. But he added that he had finally come to accept his homosexuality.
People who come out to friends and family in China often face significant pressure to undergo “treatment” or marry a partner of the opposite sex.
“It’s the first case about anti-conversion therapy in China,” said Xiao Tie, 28, executive director of the Beijing LGBT Center, which is backing the court action.
“In China, most people who undergo ‘conversion therapy’ do so because they are pressured by their family. Parents, once they realize their child is gay, urge him or her to go to a psychiatric hospital or undergo treatment,” she said.
Most people who claim they have been successfully “converted” by the therapy only say so in order to stop the distressing treatments, she added.
Conversion therapy has been around for more than 100 years, but it has fallen out of favor with medical authorities.
Nonetheless, the lucrative industry persists in many countries.
The Beijing court is expected to rule on the case within a month.
Zhang Rui, 21, who is in charge of the Beijing LGBT Center’s psychological counselling program, said advocates hope the action will help change the Chinese public’s perceptions of gay people as suffering from mental illness.
“We’re here to tell even more people that conversion therapy is not scientific,” she said. “Homosexuality can’t be ‘cured.’”
Homosexuality was a crime in China until 1997, and while attitudes in cities have relaxed in recent years, gay rights advocates walk a tightrope in the country.
Outside the court yesterday, police allowed about a dozen protesters to demonstrate.
Among them was a 60-year-old man surnamed Ling, who had flown in from east China’s Jiangxi province.
“My son is also gay,” said Ling, whose son came out four years ago. “It’s not an illness. There’s no way to change it. So, we accept him.”
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