LGBT people forced into illegal 'conversion therapy' in China

A Chinese human rights group stated that many LGBT people in the country are being forced to attend 'conversion therapy' programmes that are conducted by people having no license in sectors having very little control of authorities. According to reports, conversion therapies are conducted in order to change a person's sexual orientation through different ways such as drugs, acupuncture, hypnosis and in extreme cases electric shock therapy.

A direct human rights violation

Head of the Public Interest Law Center on Equal Rights for LGBT, Wagn Zhenyu, stated that it is a direct human rights violation alongside being a commercial scam. China had removed homosexuality from its list of mentioned diseases under the classification of Mental disorders in its national clinical guide in 2001. However, many queer people still face a sense of hostility and immense pressure to undergo conversion therapies.

According to a report by human rights groups in China, a man filed a lawsuit against a hospital where he had been imprisoned for a period of 19 days while undergoing conversion therapy in the city of Zhumadian. The man added that he had been forced by his family to undergo the therapy. In a similar case, a young transgender woman's family sent her to a hospital against her will in the city of Jingdezhen.

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An activist by the name of Peng Yanzi went on an undercover mission in a conversion therapy centre in the year 2014 and was forced to undergo electric shock therapy after which he filed a case in court and won it.

According to reports, at least 96 centres and hospitals offer these conversion therapies. The therapies performed by centres does not have the license to practice medicine.

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Sprite spread message of love, unity

Meanwhile, a brand new advertisement by Coco-Cola owned, Sprite, celebrating the Marcha de Orgullo, Bueno Aires Pride, has garnered a lot of attention in Argentina with the hashtag #NoEstasSolx as they aimed to spread the message of love and unity. The beverage company has focused on the LGBTQ families in the heartwarming advertisement and have shown family members supporting their LGBTQ family and friends as they helped them get ready for the Pride parade.

Read: US: Court Case On Job Bias Casts Veil Of Doubt Over LGBT Festivals

Read: Coimbatore Celebrates LGBT Pride With 'Rainbow Pride Parade 2019'

(With inputs from agencies)