Watch: Shocking clips reveal Chinese hospitals are still trying to ‘cure’ gay people
Shocking footage has been aired of gay ‘cure’ therapy being performed in Chinese hospitals.
Homosexuality was legalised in China in 1997, for nearly a fifth of the world’s population – but sexuality remains largely taboo in the country.
Despite no longer being listed as a mental illness in the country, reporters from Channel 4’s Unreported World have uncovered shocking practices in some Chinese hospitals, where gay people are subjected to painful electroshock therapy in a bid to make them straight.
It is not the first piece of evidence that the damaging therapy is still widespread – a medical student took legal action earlier this year over state-issued textbooks books that still suggest homosexuality is a condition that can be cured by electroshock therapy.
However, this week the documentary aired even more concerning scenes – as Chinese LGBT activist John went undercover to report on ‘conversion clinics’ that claim they can ‘cure’ gay people.
He found doctors willing to put people through painful electroshock therapy, where people are trained to associate pain with negative ‘urges’.
One nurse told him: “Your conditioned reflex is that when you see someone of the same sex, you feel love. Now what I want to make you feel is scared.”
Gay people are routinely given drugs to induce nausea, before being subjected to electric shocks as part of the ‘treatment’.
John adds that young gay and lesbian people are often brought to the clinics by their parents, who are relying on their children to continue the family tree.
He recounts: “In China, there is a saying… one of the most disrespectful things to your parents is not to have an offspring.”
Watch the full documentary on 4OD.
