Chinese University Textbook Calls Homosexuality ‘Unnatural and a Psychological Disorder’

The issue was brought to the public’s attention by Weibo user Wǒ shì luòshēng, an advocate for women’s rights and LGBTQ+ equality in a post last Monday, according to Supchina.

The screenshots were taken from the “Health Education Handbook” and given to first-year students at Huaiyin Normal University in Jiangsu Province.

“Gay people are against the law of nature,” one part of the text reads, according to the Daily Mail. “They have personality defects and unstable emotions, [they are] more likely to commit suicide and harm others as a result of adverse consequences.”

The textbook also claims members of the LGBTQ+ community can cause “instability” in society.

“In one hand, it would cause conflicts because of the rejections and disapprovals from normal groups; in another hand, gay people would instigate and seduce normal people, causing threats to normal people,” it explains.

Another part of the textbook also states homosexuality is a “psychological disorder that damages one’s nerve system,” adding gay people have a shorter life expectancy and may develop substance abuse.

“Gay people are more likely to use drugs because they cannot fit in nature and therefore they are easy to get lonely,” the health textbook claims. “They couldn’t resist the temptation of drugs.”

A representative from the university quickly reached out to The Paper and confirmed that the book’s comments about homosexuality were “inappropriate” after the screenshots went viral on Chinese social media. They asked the students to return the health textbooks for review.

“[We] will appoint health workers to review the content again, to look through all of it again, and will delete the inappropriate sections,” a university staff member told the publication.

Although many people have called out the textbook’s messages, some argued and agreed with the textbook’s message.

In 2001, China no longer considered homosexuality as a mental illness. Having removed it from “the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders.”