Practice what you preach; China should indeed include homosexuality

By Rongzhen Lyu

 

Ou Jiayong, a first-year South China Agricultural University student, brought a lawsuit to get schools, editors, and publishers to recognize that being gay is not a mental disorder. She hit upon a psychology textbook that described being gay as a mental disorder. As a lesbian, Ou felt that was unacceptable, but the complaints she made went nowhere.

 

In China, there are nearly 70 million homosexuals. Most of this group of “comrades” are still invisible or semi-invisible, and reports on the daily life of them are even rarer. China’s official stance on homosexuality is opaque. While neither is necessarily illegal, being openly gay is still risky.

 

Now, three problems stand in the way for the LGBT community to get happiness and harmony in society. The laws promulgated by the government are to exist in name only and have not been complied with and enforced; The information released by the press has dramatically affected the next generation's still prejudiced view of homosexual groups; the increasing hatred of homosexuals groups towards society has led to social instability.

 

China decriminalized homosexuality in 1997 and removed it from its official list of mental disorders in 2001, but the LGBT community continues to face discrimination in the country. Homosexuality-related elements cannot appear in Chinese movies and TV series, and the content of homosexuality on the Internet also needs to be filtered. In textbooks, homosexuality is regarded as a mental illness. The government never actively mentions homosexuality. Therefore, even if there were relevant laws and regulations as early as the 20th century, the government had to make “inclusive measures” because of its involvement in human rights issues. It did not comply with the enacted laws and regulations in all actions, and its attitude was still the opposite.

 

The reason also is that China lacks this kind of romantic atmosphere, and the rapid economic development that has attracted attention has caused many problems to be ignored. Therefore, even if the government recognizes homosexuality, even if they agree to same-sex marriage, it is only an announcement and does not have any reaction to help change people’s perspective. It is still difficult for their family members to accept them, and the LGBT group will still not be well.

That is the second problem we need to overcome. Publishing houses and educational institutions should emphasize tolerance and understanding in the education of future generations. “Ou's case stunned many people who had no idea that some textbooks still classified homosexuality as a disease,” said Peng Yanzi, director of LGBT Rights Advocacy China, an influential group that has led many awareness-raising campaigns. Citing a survey that a research group conducted from 2016-2017, almost half of the 91 psychology textbooks used in Chinese universities said that homosexuality was a type of disease. Several have been amended, Peng said, but “many more” remain. More and more young people misunderstand and reject homosexuality. Suppose all the knowledge learned by the younger generation believes that homosexuality is a pathological behavior. In that case, it will still be difficult for this group to be accepted in the next ten or twenty years.

 

The gay community of more than 70 million people lives in opaque houses. They feel humiliation, resentment, and helplessness. In such an environment, it will inevitably arouse fierce resistance from this group. "I don't mind it if the LGBT community quietly does their own thing, but why do they have to keep shoving their ideals in my face through these groups? It's right to shut them down," one person said on Weibo1. After dozens of LGBT accounts, run mainly by university students, had been deleted. This means there are still gaps and misunderstandings between mainstream groups and sexual minorities, which will inevitably cause friction and conflict and affect social stability and harmony.

 

The homosexual group is still not happy in China today. China's 5,000 years of cultural traditions and the proliferation of offspring that Confucian culture values have made it difficult for the broad masses to accept this group. If the government wants to support and respect this group, it should correctly guide the masses and slowly change their thinking. Don’t suppress homosexuality, don’t stigmatize them. The good news is that it is increasingly common for celebrities in china like ballet star Jin Xing and soccer star Li Ying to come out, helping to alleviate people’s prejudice against homosexuality.

 

We hope that as time goes by, with an effort from all sectors of the community, we can do better for being inclusive of the diversified world.

 

https://s.weibo.com/weibo/LGBT?topnav=1&wvr=6&b=1

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-57759480

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/business/international/china-gay-homosexuality-textbooks-lawsuit.html

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/meet-oprah-china-who-happens-be-transgender-942750/

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/09/china/china-pride-month-lgbt-weibo-intl-mic-hnk/index.html