Teacher reveals high price of coming out as gay in China
- Cui Le suffered the consequences of raising LGBT issues in the classroom at his Guangdong university
- His research since moving to New Zealand has confirmed that his experience is not uncommon among gay teachers in mainland China
When he came out as gay, teacher Cui Le made local news headlines and was subject to censorship and surveillance by his university in southern China. It took years – and a move to New Zealand – before he felt ready to tell his story.
Cui was working as a linguistics lecturer at the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies in the southern Chinese province of Guangzhou when he publicly identified as gay in 2015.
In August of that year a student named Qiubai, at Sun Yat-sen University, sued the Chinese education ministry over textbooks which described homosexuality as a “disease”. The school counsellor informed Qiubai’s parents of her sexuality and they, in turn, took her to the hospital for an examination.
But as he watched Qiubai’s struggle unfold he saw hardly any teachers standing up for her, because it meant taking the political risk of going against the government’s official line on the issue.
“So I did. I came out of the closet and openly expressed support for her. I hoped it would break the stereotype and stigmatisation around LGBT,” Cui said.