Progress in China but still miles to go for this community
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When Duan told me he could find few supportive parents of transgender individuals in nearby areas and had to invite one from Guangzhou for their first meeting, I decided to include some of my own behind-the-scenes thoughts on the transgender story and past stories of China’s LGBT community.
As an observer and interviewer for more than 10 years, I can see the long miles the community has come and the miles further ahead.
Duan is in charge of the Shanghai branch of PFLAG China (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays of China). They have recently further extended resources to transgender individuals, and are holding their first sharing meeting in Shanghai on August 8.
His words remind me of Wu Youjian, co-founder of the organization and the most famous “gay mom” — a mom who supports her son’s homosexuality — in China. She said almost the exact words in our first interview 10 years ago.
She was invited to town because she was famous, and also because there weren’t many such parents in nearby areas. Duan told me now he could find a dozen “gay moms” and “gay dads” at any time in Shanghai to share their experiences. Hopefully it could take less than 10 years for that to happen for transgender individuals.
The same scenario is true for my interviews. I can find quite a few homosexual interviewees for stories, but few bisexual or transgender ones. For this story, two transgender interviewees changed their minds at last minute, and would not even agree to talk on condition of anonymity. I understand their concerns about privacy. One is struggling about whether to come out to family, and the other is having a tough time convincing his parents to accept his new gender.
Lawyer Shi Chenyang, representing Gao in the appeals court for her firing case, received many inquiries on Zhihu, a Chinese question-and-answer platform, from netizens curious about the case.
Two among the most frequently asked questions were: 1) Isn’t the gender reassignment surgery just like plastic surgery, so why is it okay for a long sick leave? 2) Aren’t transgender people just like pedophiles?
“It shows lack of understanding from many people,” she told me. “They simply don’t know much about transgender individuals.”
It seems to contradict with the generally supportive comments when the case became a hot topic on Weibo, but I think the questions on Zhihu and comments on Weibo together paint a realistic picture of the social acceptance — the younger generation is more supportive of private matters staying private and against discrimination but it doesn’t mean they completely understand or support transgender issues.
I want to end with a quote from the interviewee still struggling about whether to come out to family: “It’s a lot better now than before that I can even think about coming out to parents, but not good enough that I’m still thinking about it.”
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