Source: Email
Darius Longarino / Yale Law School Paul Tsai China Center
A transgender woman who uses the alias “Ling’er” won a 60,000 RMB settlement from a mental hospital in China that had forcibly confined her for 97 days and subjected her to electroshocks to change her gender identity. Ling’er told the Guardian that the hospital “tried to ‘correct me,’ to make me conform to society’s expectations.”:
By my count, this is the third successful legal challenge against “conversion” practices in China and among them secured the largest payout for a plaintiff. This win is life changing for Ling’er who has been homeless but now can get back on her feet.
Confusingly, the hospital diagnosed the plaintiff with “sexual orientation disorder” even though the doctors were trying to (futilely) force a change to her gender identity. This brings up an important point: although people often say China “removed” homosexuality from the official list of mental disorders in the 2001 Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders Version 3 (CCMD3), the CCMD3 retained an entry on “Sexual Orientation Disorders,” with classification codes titled “Homosexuality” and “Bisexuality.” The entry states that these codes “are used to indicate the various disorders of sexual development and orientation that are not necessarily abnormal in terms of sexual behavior alone” (italics added). “However,” it continues:
“the sexual development and orientation in some individuals may accompanied [sic] by psychosocial disorders, e.g., the individuals themselves do not hope or feel hesitated [sic] to maintain the sexual development and orientation, so that they feel anxious, depressed, and/or agony, somebody try [sic] to seek medical advice or treatment to change the sexual development and orientation. This is the main reason why homosexuality and bisexuality are included in CCMD-3.””
This explanation legitimized the continued use of conversion practices.
In 2018, the National Health Commission directed all medical institutions to adhere to the International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision (ICD-11), which completely removed diagnoses regarding same-sex attraction. However, as can be seen here, there are hospitals still using the CCMD3.
The ICD-11 also removed “transsexualism” and “gender identity disorder of children” from its “mental and behavioral disorders” chapter, and instead includes “gender incongruence” under “conditions related to sexual health.” According to the WHO, “This reflects evidence that trans-related and gender diverse identities are not conditions of mental ill health, [and] … Inclusion of gender incongruence in the ICD should ensure transgender people’s access to gender-affirming health care …”
However, conversion practices targeting sexual and gender minorities still endure today. The Guardian article noted, “A study published in 2019, based on a survey of 385 people, found that nearly one in five transgender youths in China reported being forced into conversion practices by their parents.”
Thank you and very best,
Darius Longarino
Yale Law School Paul Tsai China Center
