CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
As part of this project, we wanted to look at the broader aspect of issues faced by LGBT people not just in the UK but internationally. To do this we have looked at stories from Newcastle and stories from Shanghai and Nanjing, in China.
From the interviews conducted with members of the Chinese LGBT community, we found it shocking that many of the freedoms we experience in this country when it comes to LGBT rights are not available in China. This page is to try and put into perspective the sheer difference of the two cultures in terms of LGBT rights to demonstrate that even in 2018 there is still a long way to go to achieve LGBT equality, globally.
Here in the UK and Newcastle we are fortunate to have vast array of cultures, religions and sexualities.
Over the past 51 years, since the decriminalisation of homosexuality, LGBT people in the UK have seen their rights expanded to roughly the same as non-LGBT people. Due to advances in civil rights we have seen the growing acceptance amongst society towards the LGBT community.
The UK is said to provide one of the highest degrees of liberty in the world for LGBT communities and scored the highest in Europe for progressive attitudes towards LGBT groups, according to research conducted by ILGA-Europe, a non-government LGBT organisation for Europe and Central Asia.
The LGBT community still faces many issues in the UK, such as hate crimes. Thankfully, however, they are supported by a plethora of laws which, at least legally protects them from discrimination. In addition to legal equality, British society has come along way in the 50 years, with a majority of the population accepting and supporting LGBT rights and equality. However, unlike the UK, China does not have the same LGBT rights we enjoy.
Although China has some LGBT laws they are relatively new in comparison to the UK and are rather limited.
Homosexuality has only been legal in China since 1997 and it was only declassified as a mental illness in 2001. In addition, the government do not recognize same-sex marriage or child adoption. There are no laws to protect LGBT people from disdain and discrimination but these are limited in number.
In general, However, the government has taken a laissez-faire approach to LGBT people. Its official LGBT policy is “don’t encourage, don’t discourage, don’t promote”. As a result, the Chinese government seldom mentions LGBT issues in its propaganda.
The result of this is, according to a survey conducted by Statista (2018), that only 5% of females and 3% of males were happy to admit that they were “completely out”. 30% of gay/bisexual men said they did not want to "come out". The majority said they would only disclose their sexual orientations to close friends.
