Same-sex marriage could become a reality if China reverts to its earlier tolerance, and the party does not stand in the way. Though official media suppressed discussion of the ruling in Taiwan, Weibo, China’s Twitter, lit up with millions of reactions, most of them positive. The Peking University survey revealed a big generation gap: 35% of those born before 1970 said they would reject a child who was gay only 9% born after 1990 agreed. It recently banned the depiction of homosexuals on television-not that there were many in the first place.īut Chinese attitudes are changing, paving the way for conflict with conservative laws. China’s Communist Party does not like the public expression of rights of any kind and has squelched most discussion of gay concerns. In most countries, gays and sexual minorities have had to establish their rights by holding meetings and marches, arguing their case in the media and through other forms of self-expression. The second reason is that China is not a democracy. Fewer than 15% of homosexuals said they had come out to their families, and more than half of those who did said they had experienced discrimination as a result. It found that 58% of respondents (gay and straight) agreed with the statement that gays are rejected by their families-a higher level of rejection than occurs at work or school.
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In 2016 Peking University’s sociology department carried out the largest survey of attitudes to, and among, homosexuals and other sexual minorities on behalf of the UN Development Programme. This seems to have made families into a sort of bastion against homosexuality. In China, sons are considered vehicles for carrying on a family’s good name and reputation, and are supposed to marry and have sons of their own. First, traditional filial values remain strong. Two reasons explain the lingering disdain. Moreover, homosexuality was legalised in China in 1997 (before that it could be prosecuted under a law banning hooliganism).īut homosexuality was removed from the health ministry’s list of mental disorders only in 2001. Among literate elites, China does not seem to have shared the strong bias evident elsewhere. China’s greatest novel, “The Dream of the Red Chamber”, written in the late 18th century, includes both heterosexual and same-sex relations. Taoism regarded homosexual sex as neither good nor bad, while Confucianism, by encouraging close relations between master and pupils, is sometimes thought to have indirectly encouraged it.
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In sharp contrast to Christianity and Islam, Chinese religious and social thinking does not harshly condemn same-sex relationships. In poetry of the 9th century, usually held to be the golden age of Chinese literature, it is sometimes hard to tell whether a love poem is addressed to a woman or a man. So why is China hostile, or at best indifferent, to gay rights now?
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Chinese history shows the country has long been relaxed about homosexuality. The more widely read Chinese version ignored it, as did television and other news outlets. Just one state-owned, English-language newspaper took notice of a decision that would be the first to legalise gay marriage in an Asian country (not counting New Zealand). WHEN Taiwan’s highest court ruled on May 24th that marriage should not be limited to a man and a woman and ordered parliament either to change the law or award marriage rights to gay couples within two years, the official media over the strait in China reacted with a barely stifled yawn.