Chinese doctors offer cure for homosexuality •As activists fight conversion therapy

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A Chinese medical expert, Dr Zhou Zhengyou has claimed to cure up to 70 per cent of his gay patients, although he says it is a long and difficult process.</span><br /> <div class="itemFullText"> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But Gay rights activists in China are preparing for what they say could be a legal milestone in their fight to stop homosexuality being treated as an illness.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Later this month, a Chinese court will hear the first case of its kind brought against a clinic that offers so-called “gay conversion therapy.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A long campaign in Europe and America has been successful in shifting the medical consensus against such treatment, and now campaigners want Chinese doctors to follow suit.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“China declassified homosexuality as a mental illness well over a decade ago, but clinics like Zhengyou’s are still easy to find,” a protesting activist said.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He said “Dr Zhengyou shows me some of the books he’s written on the subject over the course of his career.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“One of them is a guide for parents who suspect their son or daughter might be gay.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The overriding message appears to be that it is their own parenting methods that are somehow to blame.</span></div> <center style="height: 0px; margin: auto; overflow: hidden; width: auto;"> <div style="padding-bottom: 5px; padding-top: 10px; text-align: left;"> </div> <div id="ebzNative"> </div> </center> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“And, his critics point out, at $120 (£70) a session - a lot of money on an average Chinese wage - long and difficult can mean lucrative.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Dr Zhou tells me that today he uses counselling alone and does not treat his patients with so-called aversion-therapy offered elsewhere in China. But he is happy to describe how it works.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“One common method is electric shock. When the patient has a gay thought, we electrocute them or inject them with drugs that make them sick.”</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A supporter of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community takes part in the Hong Kong gay pride parade on November 12, 2011</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Gay pride parades have taken place in Chinese cities, including neighbouring Hong Kong</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In a picture taken on 8 March, 2011 gay couples kiss during their ceremonial ‘wedding’ as they try to raise awareness of the issue of homosexual marriage, in Wuhan, in central China’s Hubei province.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">China’s gay community has begun to fight back. They’ve organised a number of protests - small in number but nonetheless brave in China.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Chinese gay activists have begun taking bolder actions to gain support and acceptance</span></div> </div> <div class="itemContentFooter" style="border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; margin: 16px 0px 4px; padding: 4px; text-align: left;"> </div> <div class="clr" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f8f8f8; border: none; clear: both; color: black; display: block; float: none; font-family: lato, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; height: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; orphans: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"> </div> </div>

Chinese doctors offer cure for homosexuality •As activists fight conversion therapy

A Chinese medical expert, Dr Zhou Zhengyou has claimed to cure up to 70 per cent of his gay patients, although he says it is a long and dif...

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