Mainland homosexuals take lead in asking for fair deal
Public acceptance of sexual preferences is not keeping up with modern legal reforms, but more and more people are demanding equal rights
On the day when a Hong Kong transsexual won the right to marry as a woman, New Zealand had already become the first Asia-Pacific country to legalise same-sex marriage. While there is no sign of any Asian government following this precedent any time soon, the emerging faces of China's sexual minorities epitomise a growing challenge facing a traditional society in the fast lane of modernisation.
Homosexuality remains a taboo in China. But gays and lesbians have seen more trying times. Under Mao Zedong's reign, those who were found to have committed homosexual sodomy could be charged with hooliganism. During the Cultural Revolution, some ended up in labour re-education camps.
Such practices lingered until China opened up in the 1980s, bringing a sea change in the law. After official endorsement in 1984, sodomy and hooliganism were removed from the revised Criminal Law in 1997. In 2000, the government affirmed people's right to choose their sexuality and this was followed in 2001 by the removal of homosexuality from the nation's list of mental illnesses.
Social realities, meanwhile, do not seem to measure up to the extent of legal reform.
According to an investigative report by in 2010, about 90 per cent of homosexuals said they had to get married due to family pressure. The fear of discrimination led many to resort to staying "in the closet".
As a 2008 survey found, of the 1,259 gay male respondents, 62 per cent had never revealed their sexuality, about one-fifth had suffered verbal and physical abuse, and 35 per cent had contemplated suicide, while 13 per cent actually attempted to kill themselves. Another survey in the same year found that a substantial section of society deemed openly gay people unfit to teach in schools.
