UK conference on gay China begins this week
From 22 to 24 March, activists, academics, and filmmakers will share their experience with European counterparts to correct misconceptions about being gay in China.
Europe-China LGBT Exchange is organised by Dr William Schroeder from the University’s Centre for Chinese Studies.
Dr Schroeder said: “This event is about dispelling prejudices about LGBT life in China: it might be surprising to some that activists like these 12 people operate openly and rather effectively there.
“In fact LGBT communities thrive in many parts of the country, especially urban centres, but also rural areas too.”
Homosexuality in China was decriminalised in 1997 and ceased to be classified as a mental illness in 2001.
Conference organisers say that while Beijing and other big cities are home to an increasingly number of gay, bi and trans organisations and clubs, it is unusual for LGBT people to come out to their parents and employers.
Dr Schroeder, an anthropologist, is currently researching how the Chinese gay and transgender communities build up through recreational organisations.
He said: “People in China often imagine that places like the United States are gay paradises.
“But LGBT Westerners can suffer the threat of extreme violence as a result of their sexuality and authorities in some communities in the United States continue to actively persecute LGBT citizens.
“People in the West, on the other hand, imagine being gay in China is horribly dangerous or illegal.
“But LGBT people don’t face the kind of targeted moral condemnation that their American counterparts do, for example.” Read More
