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 crookedness as a disorder is not “a factual error,” but a divergent “academic view,” the South China Morning Post reported. The decision, handed down by the Suqian Intermediate People’s Court, confirms the decision of a lower court.
The LGBTQ community in China has criticized the decision. Ou Jiayong, 24, who filed a lawsuit as a college student in 2017 for the textbook editor to remove “poor quality work,” called the ruling “random and baseless.”
Ah Qiang, a spokesman for PFLAG, a support group for the foreign Chinese community and their families, accused the textbook’s editors and courts of being unrelated to contemporary culture.
“The textbook editor 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 who are particularly tormented by their sexuality, according to the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders.
Now, a social worker, Ou, who prefers the name Xixi, has discovered the controversial text in a 2013 edition of “Mental Health Education for Students” (Jinan University Press) in her first year at the Agricultural University of South China in 2016. The book described homosexuality among “common psychosexual disorders” and declared same-sex relationships are “considered to be a disturbance of love and sex or perversion of the sexual partner”.
Xixi sued publisher and book distributor JD.com, asking the company to remove the reference and publicly apologize for the homophobic content, which was disseminated in Chinese universities.
The first court ruling held that the lawyer’s case did not have scientific support, according to the SCMP, considering the issue different from opinions.
In November, Xixi filed an appeal against her. She does not agree that her evidence is missing and intends to continue her fight.
“Perhaps this decision will reduce the controversy,” she said. “But it has also allowed textbooks that pathologize homosexuality to continue to circulate, which is a shame.”