LGBT Movement within China

This week’s workshops on the LGBT movement in China gave me a real insight into the struggles that the LGBT community there faces, something that I hadn’t thought about much before. Although many topics surrounding the challenges, of being queer within the Chinese community, were broached I was most intrigued by the cultural implications that being queer within China has on the family members. Many don't ‘understand’ what it is to be LGBT and think of it more as a life choice rather than something that they cannot control; ‘this decentred identity is also often interpreted as a desire to abandon authentic & traditions for the lure of capitalism or modernity’ (Ho, 2010) .So what does it mean to be a part of the community in China? This was briefly touched upon in the panel session whereby I discovered that many of the LGBT community are forced into straight marriages in order to escape any ‘shame’ that comes not only with being queer but also through being unwed in general; ‘several reports have found that more than 80 percent of gay men married because of so­cial pressure’ (Brooks and Simon, 2009). This was then further explored in Fan Popo's documentary ‘Mama Rainbow’. This was especially interesting as you got to see the direct implications that being queer has on the mothers of those that are openly out as either lesbian/gay etc. Though the majority of the mothers within the documentary seemed to have come to terms with their child’s sexual identity I found it most interesting to hear of how even though they have accepted it, wider society hasn't, and the consequences of this sometimes means lying to family members and friends about their child’s lifestyle to shield both their child as well as themselves. Moreover if the parents are not accepting of their child's sexual preference then this leads to further lies within the family; ‘social acceptance - and even recognition- has been slow, especially in smaller provinces. This has led many to negotiate their sexuality alongside familial expectations’ (Leung,2017) .This is especially interesting as someone who is straight but has friends and family members who are not to see the stark contrasts between the views and ideas in the West versus those in the East. Although being gay was not always legal in the UK it was legalised far earlier than in China and as such I have only known a time of where being gay was legal and as such find it hard to fathom how this change has only, relatively, recently occurred in China; ‘homosexuality was decriminalized in 1997 and was removed from the list of mental illnesses in 2001’ (Brooks and Simon, 2009). Furthermore although the laws have changed, the mindsets of the public haven’t and as such you can see how religious and cultural beliefs come into play; ‘although there are no laws criminalizing private homosexual activity between consenting adults, there is pressure to conform to family and cultural expectations that discourage homosexuality.’( Brooks and Simon, 2009)


Bibliography: Brooks, A & Simons, J., (2009). Gay and Lesbian Communities the World Over, Plymouth, Lexington Books.

Ho, L., (2010). Gay and lesbian subculture in urban China, London, Routledge.

Leung, H. (2017). Squeezed in the closet: Get married and be quiet are the messages China’s LGBT community is given. Index on Censorship, 46(1), 26-28.