Homosexuality can be called a mental disorder, Chinese court rules; LGBT community disappointed
A Chinese court has upheld a ruling that a textbook description of homosexuality as “a psychological disorder” was not a factual error but merely an “academic view”.
The Chinese LGBT community, and the 24-year-old woman who filed the lawsuit, have expressed disappointment at the decision, handed down last week by the Suqian Intermediate People’s Court in the eastern province of Jiangsu.
Ou Jiayong, who also uses the name Xixi, said the court’s decision about what constituted a “factual error” was “random and baseless”
In 2016, during her first year of study at the South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, Xixi came across a psychology textbook that described being gay as a mental disorder.A Chinese court has upheld a ruling that a textbook that described homosexuality as a mental disorder was not incorrect. The Hong Kong social worker who brought the case said it was a pity, and that she considered the judgment ‘baseless’. Photo: Getty ImagesA Chinese court has upheld a ruling that a textbook that described homosexuality as a mental disorder was not incorrect. The Hong Kong social worker who brought the case said it was a pity, and that she considered the judgment ‘baseless’. Photo: Getty Images
A Chinese court has upheld a ruling that a textbook that described homosexuality as a mental disorder was not incorrect. The Hong Kong social worker who brought the case said it was a pity, and that she considered the judgment ‘baseless’. Photo: Getty Images
A Chinese court has upheld a ruling that a textbook description of homosexuality as “a psychological disorder” was not a factual error but merely an “academic view”.
The Chinese LGBT community, and the 24-year-old woman who filed the lawsuit, have expressed disappointment at the decision, handed down last week by the Suqian Intermediate People’s Court in the eastern province of Jiangsu.
Ou Jiayong, who also uses the name Xixi, said the court’s decision about what constituted a “factual error” was “random and baseless”.
In 2016, during her first year of study at the South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, Xixi came across a psychology textbook that described being gay as a mental disorder.
Xixi and her friends protested against the textbook in front of its publisher’s office in Guangzhou, Guangdong province in July 2016.
Xixi and her friends protested against the textbook in front of its publisher’s office in Guangzhou, Guangdong province in July 2016.
The 2013 edition of Mental Health Education for College Students, published by Jinan University Press, listed homosexuality under “common psychosexual disorders” – along with cross-dressing and fetishism. It stated that homosexuality “was believed to be a disruption of love and sex or perversion of the sex partner”.
The textbook is used by a number of Chinese universities and Xixi was concerned that it was perpetuating the belief that being gay was wrong.
In 2017, Xixi sued the publisher of the textbook, and online retailer JD.com that stocks it, demanding that it remove the reference and publicly apologise. She said the book was “poor quality work” as the statement was wrong, with no scientific basis to back it up.
Late last year, the Suyu District People’s Court in Suqian ruled in favour of the publishing house, saying that the opposing views of Xixi and the publisher were due to differences in opinion rather than a factual error.In November, Xixi, now a social worker in Hong Kong, appealed against the ruling, but it wasn’t enough to sway the appeal court, which last week handed down its decision to uphold the previous judgment.
Xixi said that while she had exhausted all legal avenues available to overturn the ruling, there was still much more work to be done and a long way to go to address the situation.
https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/gender-diversity/article/3123549/homose...