NGOs call on deans to allow LGBT students groups

  • Home
  • >
  • News
  • >
  • NGOs call on deans to allow LGBT students groups

On the Chinese “Teacher Day”, a number of Chinese LGBT NGOs sent a letter to deans of 112 universities and 211 training institutes asking them to pay more attention to LGBT students rights and allow LGBT students groups to register freely.

Xiao Hancheng, director of the Hunan based NGO “Tong’ai Wang” already sent a similar letter to Hunan universities in 2013 but did not receive any answers. This year, he is planning to register for open government information to force universities disclose their regulations managing students’ groups registration if he does not receive answers.

According to a report published by the LGBT NGO Aibai in 2012, 77% of the 421 interviewed LGBT students said they were victims of discrimination and/or bullying on Chinese campuses. Not being able to register, LGBT students’ groups have difficulties operating for financial and security reasons. In 2006, Guangzhou’s Sun Yat-sen’s University was the first to register a LGBT student group but after getting under a lot of pressure, the university refused to grant it registration the following year.

In August 2014, the Guangdong based LGBT NGO “Same-City Youth Resource Center” (同城青少年资源中心) analyzed the university textbooks used to teach psychology and mental health classes and found out that out of several hundreds textbooks published after 2001, only 42 brought up homosexuality, 40% considered it as a pathological state and 50% stated that it could be cured.

In Brief

On the Chinese “Teacher Day”, a number of Chinese LGBT NGOs sent a letter to deans of 112 universities and 211 training institutes asking them to pay more attention to LGBT students rights and allow LGBT students groups to register freely.
Table of Contents