Homosexuality can be considered “a psychological disorder” in the eyes of Chinese law.
Citing controversial academic literature, a court in Jiangsu Province in eastern China ruled that a textbook that defines queeresa as a disorder is not an “error of fact,” but an “academic view.” divergent, the South China Morning Post reported. The ruling, from the Suqian Intermediate People’s Court, confirms the ruling of a lower court.
The LGBTQ community in China has criticized the decision. Ou Jiayong, 24, who filed the lawsuit as a college student in 2017 to get the textbook publisher to withdraw from circulation his “poor quality work,” described the sentence as “random and baseless.” “.
Ah Qiang, a spokesman for PFLAG, a support group for the Chinese queer community and their families, accused the textbook publishers and the courts of being out of touch with contemporary culture.
“The textbook publisher apparently used views that did not match society’s perception of today’s sexual minorities,” Ah said in a statement.
Officially, homosexuality was decriminalized in China in 1997 and ceased to be classified as a mental illness in 2001, with the exception of homosexuals especially tormented by their sexuality, according to the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders.
Now, a social worker, Ou, who prefers the nickname Xixi, discovered the questionable text in a 2013 edition of “Mental Health Education for College Students” (Jinan University Press) during her freshman year. Agricultural University of Southern China in 2016. The book described homosexuality between “common psychosexual disorders” and declared homosexual relationships “believed to be an interruption of love and sex or a perversion of the sexual partner.”
Xixi sued the publisher and retailer of the book JD.com, demanding the company remove the reference and apologize publicly for the homophobic content, which has spread to Chinese universities.
The first court ruling argued that the lawyer’s case also lacked academic support, according to SCMP, which described the matter as a different opinion.
In November, Xixi filed the appeal he had just ruled against her. He disagrees with the fact that his evidence is missing and plans to continue his struggle.
“Perhaps this ruling will reduce the controversy,” he said. “But it has also allowed textbooks that pathologize homosexuality to continue to circulate, which is a shame.”