College offers China’s first class on gay culture

SHANGHAI, China – A university in Shanghai is offering China’s first class on homosexuality and gay culture and several hundred students have applied for the 100 openings, the course’s professor said Tuesday.

Professor Sun Zhongxin, one of the course’s instructors at the prestigious Fudan University, said its introduction resulted from strong interest among undergraduates.

“I used to teach gender study for undergraduates and found they were very interested in the topic of homosexuality,” Sun said.

The class is full, but “more students are still applying,” Sun said.

The course aims to break down widespread ignorance and prejudice against gays in China, another instructor, Gao Yanning, was quoted as saying by the Shanghai Daily newspaper.

“We will pay more attention on how to have a proper view about homosexuals,” Gao said, according to the paper. “We will give students an equitable judgment on homosexuals and help eliminate students’ discrimination.”

Gao could not be reached for further comment.

Gays were strongly persecuted after China’s 1949 communist revolution, condemned as products of decadent Western and feudal societies. Official attitudes gradually have changed since the late 1980s, and in 2001, the China Psychiatric Association ceased listing homosexuality as a mental illness.

Looser enforcement of laws on homosexual behavior has allowed small but thriving gay scenes to emerge in Shanghai, Beijing and other cities in the developed east.

Yet, given the disdain shown to homosexuality by traditional Confucian culture, gay men and lesbians in China still tend to hide their sexual orientation.

While reports of violence against homosexuals are rare, discrimination by family members and co-workers remains strong and Communist Party officials have ruled out legislation outlawing such unfair treatment.