China’s stance on homosexuality has changed. Its textbooks haven’t.

 | 
11/01/2020

Early in college, Ou Jiayong had already learned two things. One, textbooks can be wrong. And two, it can be hard to change them — especially on topics as sensitive in China as homosexuality. In 2016, during her first year at South China Agricultural University in her hometown, Guangzhou, she stumbled across a psychology textbook that described being gay as a mental disorder. As a lesbian, Ou felt that was unacceptable, but the complaints she made went nowhere. So Ou, who also uses the name Xixi, brought a lawsuit demanding that the publisher remove the reference and publicly apologize. Her case has renewed the conversation about tolerance and human rights in a country where discrimination based on sexual orientation is rampant and where homosexuality has long been seen as incompatible with the traditional emphasis on marriage. In a letter to the judge, Ou, now 23, recalled being “deeply stung” when she read the textbook.

Regions: ,

Share this:

Latest Global News

Added on: 03/28/2024
03/27/2024
Nine men were sentenced to death by a Houthi court in Yemen in a mass trial based on “dubious” charges of sodomy, a human …
Added on: 03/28/2024
03/27/2024
Thailand is set to become the first Southeast Asian nation to recognise equal marriage after politicians passed a same-sex marriage bill. The lower house of …
Added on: 03/28/2024
03/27/2024
In what looks like a deliberate bid to redirect intense public scrutiny away from grave allegations implicating her in a seemingly multibillion-shilling corruption scandal, …

Explore LGBTQ+ Issues

Other News from ,

Added on: 03/28/2024
Nine men were sentenced to death by a Houthi court in Yemen in a mass trial based on “dubious” charges of sodomy, a human …
Added on: 03/28/2024
Thailand is set to become the first Southeast Asian nation to recognise equal marriage after politicians passed a same-sex marriage bill. The lower house of …
Added on: 03/27/2024
Thailand is set to become the first Southeast Asian nation to recognise equal marriage after politicians passed a same-sex marriage bill. The lower house …