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What is happening?
In response to a written request by a Chinese citizen for clarification about LGBTQ+ discrimination, the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China on May 9, 2026 issued a groundbreaking statement. The reply to the citizens’ petition — a process by which citizens can appeal directly to China’s authorities — the court explicitly points out that homosexuality is not a mental disorder, and that recruiters and school officials should not judge relevant individuals based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression at workplaces and schools. It also states that the court will continue to track and analyze sexual minority cases nationwide, summarize adjudication rules, and unify judicial standards, so as to safeguard citizens’ personal freedom and human dignity in accordance with the law.
The petition stemmed from a letter of suggestion from a Master student in Qingdao. According to the reform agenda announced by the Supreme People’s Court of the PRC in 2015, cases that the court should accept according to law should be filed, with every lawsuit processed, thereby safeguarding the petitioner’ right to litigation.
What is the broader picture?
Although the Supreme People’s Court indicated that the petitioner has provided a valuable suggestion, it cannot be seen as a radical departure from the authority’s long-upholding stance towards LGBTQ+ rights, as replies to petitions are not legally binding. At the level of legal validity, this legal interpretation by China’s top court does not extend beyond the acknowledgement of anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination.
China decriminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations in 1997, and the Chinese Society of Psychiatry declassified homosexuality as a mental illness in 2001. Although there are no existing laws explicitly forbidding same-sex marriage, to date, same-sex marriage has not yet been legalized in China. Currently, the marriage law of the PRC defines marriage exclusively as a union between a man and a woman, and same-sex couples are therefore denied the same spousal rights as their heterosexual counterparts.
Why does it matter?
In 2019, the National People’s Congress of China publicly stated that the legalization of same-sex marriage was one of the primary appeals of its citizens. On the cusp of the 2026 Pride Month around the corner, it should be noted that China’s LGBTQ+ community has paused its celebrations since 2021—the year when the Chinese authorities started to tighten their control of related activities and campaigns in the physical and digital sphere. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, these restrictions remained in place, and many advocates ended up relocating overseas.
From the perspective of the Chinese Communist Party, the presence of grassroots LGBTQ+ organizations does not align with the “party-state” system where the party holds an absolute monopoly on political power. Furthermore, public advocacy of LGBTQ rights is seen by the CCP as the ideological infiltration of Western forces.
Aside from the CCP’s political concerns, within Chinese society, cultural expectations around marriage remain pervasive. Reaching a certain age without a heterosexual marriage is often met with social pressure — particularly from family — making “coming out” not merely a personal declaration, but a direct confrontation with one of the most deeply held expectations in Chinese family life.
The Supreme People’s Court’s response, however well-intentioned it may appear, ultimately exposes the fundamental contradiction at the heart of Beijing’s governance: The state is willing to acknowledge injustice, yet structurally incapable of remedying it. So long as the CCP frames LGBTQ+ rights as a vector of Western ideological infiltration rather than a domestic human rights imperative, no court ruling, however progressive in tone, can substitute for the power of discourse that remains absent in Chinese civil society.