'Curing' homosexuality in China

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‘Curing’ homosexuality in China

LGBT+ people still have to suffer forced confinement, medication and electric shocks to try to change their sexual orientation, writes Alessio Perrone

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It’s not a crime to be gay in China but hospitals and parents can force LGBT+ people to have ‘conversion treatment’.

Graeme Reid from Human Rights Watch (HRW) says LGBT+ people have to suffer ‘forced confinement, medication and even electric shocks to try to change their sexual orientation.’

More than 20 years ago, homosexuality stopped being a crime in China, but public hospitals and private clinics are offering the ‘treatment’ to parents who ask for it for their children, says a recent HRW report.

China’s 2013 Mental Health Law makes this conversion therapy illegal. The law says that medical treatment must respect basic rights and dignity, and that there can be no intervention for something that is not classified as a disorder – and homosexuality has not been classified as a disorder since 2001.

But Chinese authorities have never done much to stop hospitals from providing the ‘therapy’.

Some of the interviewees in the HRW report say they had electroshock sessions where they learnt to link pain or discomfort with images, videos or descriptions of gay sex. Some people said the hospital forced them to take medication and did not tell them about the effects or possible risks of the medication.

Almost all interviewees said the medical staff abused them verbally. They all said there was very strong pressure from their family and from society, so they had not complained.

NOW READ THE ORIGINAL: https://newint.org/sections/agenda/2018/01/01/china-gay-rights