Want China Times, Xinhua 2014-05-18
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| A gay couple attending a meeting in Taiyuan, Aug. 2013. (Photo/CNS) |
More
attention should be paid to the emotional well-being of the LGBT (lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender) community in China, as members face a tough battle
against emotional issues, a non-governmental organization (NGO) report has
concluded.
Out of
1,653 respondents from the LGBT community, 58.21% of teenagers and 49.03% of
adults are prone to depression, higher than the national level in both
categories, according to the report published by the Beijing LGBT Center on
Friday.
The report
was conducted via social media applications such as Sina Weibo, the Chinese
equivalent of Twitter, websites and offline research, according to Xiao Tie,
executive director of the center.
Of those
surveyed, 60.61% expressed the wish to change negative emotions regarding their
sexual orientation. Other problems highlighted include relationships,
self-confidence and self-identity, the report said.
Nearly 10%
of the LGBT community have considered trying "conversion therapies"
to "treat" homosexuality or alter their sexual orientation. This
group of people showed higher levels of depression, according to the report.
John Shen,
mental health program officer with the center, said that the report emphasizes
the potential for prejudices against the LGBT community.
"Despite
an increasingly open society, prejudices against the LGBT community still
persist in our society, which causes many to live in fear and shame because
they are afraid of not being accepted," Shen said.
He said
homosexuality has not been completely removed from the Chinese Classification
of Mental Disorders (CCMD), which is partly why conservative attitudes still
persist in the country.
Fang Gang,
director of Research Institute of Gender and Sexuality at Beijing Forestry
University, said that "conversion therapies" exist due to prejudices
in the psychological medicine field.
Many people
among the LGBT community refuse to seek psychological help as they are scared
to have their privacy exposed, which is another factor that has contributed to
their mental health problems, said Jiang Lan, a research fellow from the
Institute of Psychology in the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
To tackle
the issue, John Shen said that the government should increase efforts to completely
eliminate homosexuality from the CCMD, and that Chinese society should be more
inclusive to help the LGBT community become happier.
"What
the community needs is understanding, respect and love, because they are all
human beings like us," Shen said.
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