A Beijing court on Tuesday heard an appeal of a gay rights activist against China's Ministry of Education (MOE) over a textbook that describes homosexuality as a "psychological disorder," after losing her lawsuit at a previous hearing.
Qiu Bai (pseudonym), a senior at Sun Yat-sen University in South China's Guangdong Province, sued the MOE before the Beijing First Intermediate People's Court in June 2016, but lost because the court said the plaintiff did not have a "direct interest" in the matter.
Two MOE staffer attended the one-hour-long hearing on Tuesday without a lawyer, Qiu told the Global Times.
"They kept silent on the ministry's responsibility to review textbooks … and on the fact that the textbook has stigmatized homosexuality," Qiu added.
The only change in their wording was that the ministry admitted the textbook might exert "indirect influence" on her rights, instead of denying any impact, she added.
In the textbook, Consulting Psychology, which was included in Guangdong's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) for college textbooks and published in 2013, homosexuality is defined as a psychological disorder, together with pedophilia, zoophilia and necrophilia. The book also lists subsequent psychological problems caused by homosexuality, describing the causes of the "illness" and provides four methods to cure the "illness."
The book recommended "aversion therapy," which includes electric shock, to rid the person of his or her homosexual attachment.
The court rejected Qiu's request for a public hearing and failed to rule on the appeal on Tuesday.
This is the fourth time Qiu has sued the MOE over the textbook. She dropped her first case after a meeting with representatives from the ministry, since she thought her voice had been heard.
