Source: NYT (12/8/24)
She Sued Over Transgender ‘Conversion Therapy,’ a First for China
Ling’er won a settlement payout from the hospital where she was held for three months against her will and subjected to electroshock therapy.
By Vivian Wang, Reporting from Beijing
Ling’er posing for a portrait in the room she recently rented in Tianjin, China, in November. Credit…Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times
For years after coming out as transgender, Ling’er, an aspiring influencer in eastern China, struggled from heartbreak to heartbreak. Her family refused to accept her. When she tried to find an interim job to support herself, employers would not hire her.
And when her parents sent her to a hospital to try to change her gender identity, she was held there for three months, despite her repeated protests. She was forced to undergo treatment that included multiple rounds of electroshock therapy.
So when she later sued the hospital for subjecting her to unnecessary and unwanted treatment, she was not optimistic. Then the seemingly unthinkable happened: A court accepted her complaint, in China’s first known lawsuit over so-called conversion therapy involving a transgender person. And the hospital agreed in October to pay her a sizable settlement.
“To me, this is a win. With this money, I can start my new life, and start my own business,” said Ling’er, 28. “I can live my own life.”
The case is a rare bright spot in the fight for L.G.B.T.Q. rights in China. Ling’er’s lawsuit was covered sympathetically by some mainstream Chinese news outlets, even as overall coverage of L.G.B.T.Q. issues has diminished. That her lawsuit was accepted at all was a hard-won victory, her supporters said, in a country with no laws protecting L.G.B.T.Q. people.
As China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has overseen a crackdown on civil society, many L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy groups have been forced to shut down, and Pride celebrations have been canceled. Nationalist influencers have attacked L.G.B.T.Q. activism as a hostile foreign force. People have been punished for displaying rainbow flags.
It is unclear whether the payout to Ling’er will have any effect on preventing future cases of conversion therapy, a practice that has been widely discredited by medical experts. The hospital pressed for the exact terms of the settlement to be confidential, and it has not acknowledged wrongdoing.
Ling’er was initially reluctant even to file the lawsuit. “Sexual minorities in China have no guarantees,” she said. “How could you possibly protect your rights?”
Ling’er at a hair salon in Tianjin. She had known since childhood that she preferred spending time with girls, and realized in college that she was transgender. Credit…Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times
She was ultimately convinced by a group of L.G.B.T.Q. advocates, in China and overseas, with whom she had connected online and who helped her find lawyers. It was a support network that she could not have imagined finding in her rural, mountainous hometown in China’s Hebei Province.
Ling’er, who is using a chosen name, had known since childhood that she preferred spending time with girls, and she realized while studying at a vocational school that she was transgender. She eventually began taking estrogen and dressing in women’s clothing. But when she came out to her parents in 2021, during a visit home, they said she was disgracing their family.
In 2022, Ling’er agreed to her parents’ requests to see a psychiatrist at a hospital in the nearby city of Qinhuangdao, hoping it would appease them.
She explained to doctors at Qinhuangdao Jiulongshan Hospital that she did not think there was anything wrong with her gender identity, and that it was her parents who could not accept her. She acknowledged feeling anxious and depressed, but not to a serious extent. Hospital staff noted that she seemed clearheaded and spoke at a normal pace, medical and legal records show.
Even so, she was diagnosed with anxiety and “ego-dystonic sexual orientation.” The term, which has generally referred to people who are unhappy with their sexual orientation, was dropped from the World Health Organization’s official list of medical conditions in 2019, due to concerns that it contributed to discrimination against L.G.B.T.Q. people and had been used as justification for conversion therapy.
Over Ling’er’s protests, her mother had her involuntarily hospitalized.
Ling’er dreams of becoming an online influencer. Credit…Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times
She remained in hospital for 97 days, despite repeatedly pleading to leave. She was given psychiatric medication and subjected to seven rounds of modified electroconvulsive therapy.
The doctors did not explicitly say that the electric shocks were intended to change her gender identity, Ling’er said, but they urged her to cut her hair short and wear men’s clothing, and they made clear that they believed her transgender identity was wrong.
“The doctors didn’t listen to anything I said,” she said. “They thought I was sick, so I was sick.”
Medical and private institutions offering “conversion therapy” are common in China, according to activists, because the stigma against transgender people is widespread.
The Chinese Society of Psychiatry removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 2001, but it retained the ego-dystonic diagnosis, and it also continues to classify transgender individuals as having a mental illness. People are allowed to change their legal genders, but only if they undergo gender-affirming surgery and notify their families.