Test 2

Please select your preferred language.

請選擇你慣用的語言。

请选择你惯用的语言。

English
中文简体
台灣繁體
香港繁體

Login

Remember Me

New to Fridae?

Fridae Mobile

Advertisement
Highlights

More About Us

3 Sep 2014

Chinese man petition’s WHO to ban ‘gay conversion’ therapies

 

 

A man who sued a clinic in China for carrying out “gay cures” is petitioning the World Health Organization to condemn and ban “gay conversion” therapies worldwide.

The petition led by 30-year-old Xiao Zhen and supported by 66,416 people was addressed to WHO Director Margaret Chan to reaffirm that being gay is not a disease.

“I’ve been through electro-shocks at a gay ‘cure’ clinic in China. Now I’m fighting back to tell everyone in China and beyond that being gay is OK — and to make sure that gay ‘cures’ are banned,” said Zhen in a report appearing inlifestyle.inquirer.net.

“I’m calling on WHO to back me up and send a simple message to Chinese authorities and the Chinese medical community: being gay is ok! It’s not a disease. No one should have to endure the trauma that I have, ever again,” said Zhen who uses a pseudonym.

Zhen sued Xinyu Piaoxiang clinic in Chongqing last July for administering a “gay conversion therapy” which included him being electrocuted, a procedure he was not informed about beforehand. He also sued Baidu, China’s equivalent of the Google search engine, for allegedly advertising the center.

Zhen said he was compelled to undertake the gay conversion therapy because his parents could not accept that he was a gay and because he felt “lonely, confused, and depressed.”

The ruling on the case will be released sometime later in September and is already being considered by Chinese LGBT groups as a landmark decision because of the deeply held Chinese belief that children are required to marry and bear offspring to continue the family line.

Elsewhere in the world, therapies that purport to turn gay, lesbian or bisexual people straight have been discredited.

The American Psychiatric Association says undergoing such treatment risks depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior. The United Kingdom Council for Pyschotherapy calls the practice unethical.

In China, however, conversion clinics have operated for decades, and there has been no such outcry from medical or official bodies even though China legalized adult same-sex relations in 1997 and removed “homosexuality” from an official list of psychiatric diseases in 2001.

Media reports that a panel constituted by the WHO has recommended that code F66.0 in the International Classification of Diseases — the top diagnostic manual of mental disorders book — remove “homosexuality-related psychological disorders,” pertaining to sexual orientation because they “lack scientific basis or clinical utility.”

The United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights has already in 2011 criticized “gay conversion therapies” as “unscientific, potentially harmful and contributing to stigma.”

Reader's Comments

1. 2014-09-03 13:51  
Conversion therapy has been proven in the US to be psychologically damaging ... why would anyone do this anyway? You are who you are... be who you are and be proud.

Comment #2 was deleted by its author on 2014-09-03 13:52
3. 2014-09-04 09:53  
Oh gosh..poor chap who had to undergo such a traumatic experience in order to realise that electric shock therapy can't cure his sexual preference for men...
4. 2014-09-04 12:57  
Psycology could not be applied to all countries because it will damage Human being quality and because concept of psycology is not from all countries so that pyscian/Doctors would do not know on application correctly.

They only copy and paste and when situation is not condusif The Doctors theirselves become chronic disease for Human.
These kind of Doctors should get electro shock-High Voltage to cure them.
Mean that Conversion Therapy is Therapy or cure for such kind of Doctor to be Better Human.
Such kind of Doctors have mental disorder.
Being such Kind of Doctors is very dangerous Disease.

You gay should not blind and should always watch such kind of Doctor Behavior at everywhere, at Job, inside or outside.
Just pay attention around you. Who have such kind of education
and see their attitude and you gay should not get deception.
Be alert! because Evil will appear to be Holly.

Gay should be profesional to handle Doctors
Because you are gay know yourself more than Doctors.
If you gay know your self than you are a profesional
because the doctors will do not know you unless you tell the doctors and The doctors just follow (copy and paste) what had written or taught that possible to be wrong thing.

such kind of doctor may get punishment and fine.
How much you have paid for the doctors?
then you can ask the money back + fine + jail to the doctors

Those doctors did crime






Comment edited on 2014-09-04 19:05:24
5. 2014-09-04 18:44  
They're so brave, they dare to fight, this is so hard in China.
Comment edited on 2014-09-05 18:20:52

Please log in to use this feature.

Select News Edition

Featured Profiles

Now ALL members can view unlimited profiles!

Languages

View this page in a different language:

Like Us on Facebook

Partners

 ILGA Asia - Fridae partner for LGBT rights in Asia IGLHRC - Fridae Partner for LGBT rights in Asia

Advertisement