This past May, a lawsuit was filed with Beijing's Haidian District Court by 30-year-old Beijing resident Xiao Zhen, accusing a psychiatric clinic in Chongqing of exceeding the limits of its license by offering a program to "cure" homosexuality. After attending the clinic himself at the suggestion of his parents, Xiao Zhen did some research, finding that the clinic was only licensed to provide counseling or psychiatric treatment, not physical treatment of the sort he experienced during his time there.
Xiao Zhen's lawsuit also alleges that the clinic cannot claim to "cure" homosexuality because homosexuality is not considered a mental illness.
In fact, homosexuality was removed from China's list of mental illnesses as recently as 2001. And it was only in 1997 that the Chinese government decriminalized homosexuality. Gay marriage, on the other hand, remains illegal in the country.
China's gay rights activists were initially hopefully when Beijing's Haidian District Court agreed to hear the case, as they felt it meant that the government might be opening up to the LGBTQ community in China. But the Court just missed the six-month deadline usually allotted to Chinese courts hearing civil cases to issue a ruling.
Still, the judge in charge of the lawsuit told the news publication China RealTime that the decision had not been delayed and would be released soon.
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