China: Gay student sues ministry over textbooks

The Chinese Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from a list of mental illnesses in 2001

A university student is suing China's education ministry over academic textbooks that describe homosexuality as a "disorder", it's reported.

Chen Qiuyan launched the legal action after she found the books in her university library, some of which suggested gay people could be "cured" with electroshock therapy, Xinhua news agency reports. A court in Beijing has accepted the case, which calls for the textbooks to be removed. "Homosexuals are already under great pressure," says Ms Chen, who filed the case under an alias but has since spoken to US media using her real name. "Additional stigma from textbooks will cause direct harm. The ministry should bear the duty to monitor and supervise such content."

Ms Chen, who studies at a public university in southern Guangdong province, had been consulting the library books after feeling confused over her own sexual orientation. "I thought textbooks must be authoritative," she tells the New York Times in a telephone interview. "After reading them, I was terrified. I was even more afraid to admit that I'm gay."

China stopped categorising homosexuality as a mental illness in 2001, but dozens of textbooks published after that time still describe it as a "disorder", Xinhua says citing an investigation by a regional NGO. Last year, a Beijing court issued a landmark ruling against a clinic offering "gay conversion therapy", the first case of its kind in the country.

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