Channel 4 is set to air a documentary tonight that sheds light on the treatment of China’s LGBT community.
Though being gay in China was decriminalized in 1997, its only 14 years since it has been declassified as a mental illness.
In a new segment of Channel 4’s Unreported World series, Irish journalist Shaunagh Connaire delves into the mistreatment of LGBT issues. She tells Elle
‘I come from a place that embraces gay rights. This year when Ireland became the first country in the world to legalize same sex marriage by popular vote, I felt immensely proud. I felt emotional as I read the tweets, the headlines, and the text messages, from friends and family who were joining this movement. I felt like I was part of something monumental, even though I was watching from afar as a heterosexual person who never had to endure guilt or shame about who I chose to love.
At that moment, in my eyes, the LGBT crusade was alive and well.
Fast forward one month and I was undercover in China, meeting the country’s leading LGBT activists whose situation was somewhat darker”.
The documentary follows John Shen who is second in command of the largest gay rights group in China, the Beijing LGBT Centre.
Shaunagh says “He and his colleagues are fighting to expose these clinics that use quack remedies to change a person’s sexual orientation. Its unmistakably distressing work on the surface but John’s struggle has many layers. Not only is his cause raising suspicion among the authorities that continually call unannounced to the LGBT Centre, John has yet to come out to his parents”.
Unreported World: China’s Gay Shock Therapy is on Channel 4 , Friday 9th October at 7:30PM
