China: Qiubai sued the Ministry of Education for calling teaching materials "stigma"

Today (10th) afternoon, the "Qiubai sued the Ministry of Education" case involving discrimination against sexual orientation was opened in the second instance of the Beijing Higher People's Court. The case was not pronounced in court. The plaintiff's attorney Yu Liying stated that Qiu Baifang provided new evidence and expanded the content of the infringement, but the Ministry of Education did not recognize the relevance of the evidence.

　　Beijing News Express (Reporter Wang Wei, intern Wu Linyue) Today (10th) afternoon, the "Qiubai sued the Ministry of Education" involving sexual orientation discrimination opened in the second instance of the Beijing Higher People's Court, and the case was not pronounced in court. The plaintiff's attorney Yu Liying stated that Qiu Baifang provided new evidence and expanded the content of the infringement, but the Ministry of Education did not recognize the relevance of the evidence.

　　The Beijing News previously reported that in August 2015, Qiubai (pseudonym), a homosexual female college student in Guangzhou, took the Ministry of Education to court because the Ministry of Education did not respond to her application for “discrimination against homosexuality in college textbooks” and did not fulfill it. Information disclosure responsibilities.

　　At 3:45 this afternoon, Qiubai's case against the Ministry of Education opened. The focus of the case is still "whether the handling of teaching materials supervision matters has violated Qiubai's rights."

　　The attorney Yu Liying disclosed to the Beijing News reporter that the plaintiff claimed in the first instance that Qiubai had violated his personal rights and the right to education when he was reading textbooks involving "stigmatizing homosexuality". In the second trial, Qiu Baifang submitted supplementary evidence that Qiu Bai bought a textbook that stigmatizes homosexuality-"Mental Health Course" as an elective course, and suffered property losses. In summary, the Ministry of Education's ineffective supervision of teaching materials has a stake in Qiubai's personal rights, education rights, and property rights.

　　According to his description of the court hearing, the Ministry of Education insisted on the opinion of the first instance and believed that the handling of materials supervision matters did not directly infringe Qiubai's rights. "The Ministry of Education denied the relevance of the evidence we presented when responding, saying that these were not direct evidence."

　　After the trial, Qiubai told the Beijing News reporter that he "will never give up" the revision of college textbooks that discriminate against homosexuality. "If I lose the case, I can still appeal to the procuratorate. If this is possible, I will certainly try. I will also go directly to lobby publishers and editors to revise the textbook."

　　Case review: Qiubai's "Three Sues" Ministry of Education

　　Today is the fourth time Qiubai has filed a lawsuit with the Ministry of Education, and the sixth time he has filed a lawsuit for "stigmatizing homosexuals in college teaching materials."

　　In May 2015, Qiubai sued Guangdong Higher Education Press for harming his reputation due to a similar description of "homosexuality is pathological" in textbooks. However, the court held that "the publication has no direct legal relationship with Qiubai" and did not file a case. Qiubai turned to the Ministry of Education to file a lawsuit three times.

　　"One suit": pre-trial mediation, withdrawal of the suit

　　On November 24, 2015, Qiubai held a dialogue with officials of the Ministry of Education in the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court in the form of pre-trial mediation. The Ministry of Education stated that it had not received any report from Qiubai on "homophobia" teaching materials, and suggested that it should be reported. Qiubai withdrew the lawsuit.

　　From December 2015 to March 2016, Baifang sent a letter to the Ministry of Education, but did not receive a reply.

　　"Second complaint": the court did not file a case

　　On April 25, 2016, Qiubai sued the Ministry of Education for inaction, and the court did not file a case.

　　In May 2016, Qiubai filed an administrative reconsideration against the Ministry of Education, which will not be accepted.

　　"Three Accusations": Lost in the first instance

　　On February 22, 2016, Qiubai mailed a report letter to the Ministry of Education, but the Ministry of Education did not reply.

　　On May 16, 2016, Qiubai applied to the Ministry of Education for administrative reconsideration and again asked for a reply. The Ministry of Education decided not to accept it.

　　On June 14, 2016, Qiubai took the Ministry of Education to court for the third time, and Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court filed the case. This case is called "the first case of gay education rights in China".

　　On September 27, 2016, the verdict of the first instance was pronounced and Qiu Bai lost the case. The court held that Qiubai had no interest in his request. Qiubai immediately appealed.

Read more via Beijing News

Chinese gay activist challenges homosexuality 'disorder' textbooks

Natalie Thomas

A gay Chinese student activist on Monday lodged a suit against the Ministry of Education over school textbooks describing homosexuality as a mental disorder, the latest step by China’s small but growing gay rights movement.

It is not illegal to be gay in China and these days many large Chinese cities have thriving gay scenes, though there is still a lot of family pressure to get married and have children, even for gay men and women.

Homosexuality was listed as a mental disorder until 2001.

However, Chinese universities continue to use textbooks that contain terms such as “disorder” and “impediment” to refer to homosexuality, research the Gay and Lesbian Campus Association of China carried out in 2014 found.

Qiu Bai, 21 and a media studies student at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, told Reuters she came across similar materials when she turned to the books in her university library after beginning to question her own sexual orientation. Read more via Reuters

Egypt: 11 men accused of homosexuality jailed

An Egyptian court has sentenced 11 men accused of homosexuality to jail terms of between three and 12 years, legal sources said.

The defendants were arrested in a flat in the leafy Cairo suburb of Agouza in September last year. The court convicted them of "debauchery and incitement to debauchery", the charges generally used to prosecute alleged homosexuals in Egypt as the law does not formally prohibit same-sex relations.

It sentenced three of them to 12 years, three to nine years, one to six years and four to three years. Egypt's use of the debauchery law to prosecute and jail gay men has drawn condemnation from human rights groups. Read more via AFP 

Thailand: Gay couple win custody battle against Thai surrogate mother

A same-sex couple have won a legal battle in Thailand against the surrogate mother who gave birth to their daughter but later refused to sign the paperwork to allow the baby to leave the country when she found out they were gay.

The central juvenile and family court on Tuesday ruled in favour of Gordon Lake, an American and the biological father of 15-month-old Carmen, and his Spanish husband, Manuel Santos, both 41.

The egg came from an anonymous donor and the surrogate, Patidta Kusolsang, is not biologically related to the baby. She initially handed Carmen to Lake at the hospital but later claimed she thought she would be helping a “legitimate” couple and demanded the baby back. Read more via Guardian 

Israel: Court convicts Gay Pride Parade stabber Yishai Schlissel of murder

A participant in Jerusalem’s pride parade, was convicted on Tuesday of murder, six counts of attempted murder and one count of causing extreme bodily harm.

The Jerusalem District Court’s three-judge panel of Nava Ben-Or, Refael Yacobi and Arnon Darel, wrote that Yishai Schlissel, “in a dark and cruel act, has extinguished the light of her [Shira Banki’s] life,” ending “her dreams and hopes.”

The stabbings garnered across-the-board condemnations, including from Orthodox figures, and drew international attention due to the ferocity of the attack.

Schlissel, who was previously imprisoned for 10 years for stabbing three people at the 2005 Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade, was arrested during the stabbing rampage, just weeks after being released from jail. Read more via The Jerusalem Post