China is to remove homosexuality from the official list of mental illness. Up to now homosexuality has been automatically included by the Chinese Psychiatric Association (CPA) in its diagnostic manual, Miriam Donohoe reports.
But in the updated manual to be published at the end of April, homosexuality will be included as a mental illness only if a patient suffers psychological problems as a result of his or her sexual orientation, the vice-president of the CPA, Dr Chen Yanfang, confirmed to The Irish Times yesterday.
The move is seen as a major step forward in tolerance of gays and lesbians in China.
Dr Chen said yesterday that most homosexuals lead normal lives and the change in the manual is a result of five years of study. A survey carried out by the CPA in 1999 found that of 51 gays and lesbians monitored for a year, only six had psychological disorders.
"In the updated manual only people who are gay with psychological problems or who suffer from depression will be classified as having a mental disorder," he said when contacted in the city of Jinn in Shandong.
Dr Chen said some gay people are unhappy with their sexual orientation and want treatment.
The World Health Organisation stopped describing homosexuality as a mental illness in 1993. It was removed from the American Psychiatric Association list in 1973.
While there is no written law outlawing homosexuality in China, there is a law outlawing sodomy and the authorities do not tolerate homosexuality. Gay harassment has been common although there are signs of tolerance. There is a flourishing underground gay scene in Beijing and major cities and there are several gay web sites.