Report

Positive Attitudes Toward LGBTQ People in Mainland China

July 2024

Researchers surveyed the mainland Chinese public about their familiarity with and acceptance of LGBTQ people. This study examines participants’ attitudes toward policy issues such as discrimination at work, same-sex marriage, and same-sex couples raising children.

 

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AUTHORS
Highlights
Over half of Chinese people surveyed say LGBTQ people should be accepted by society.
Those who were younger, female, and more educated were more likely to show positive attitudes toward LGBTQ people.
More than half of those surveyed said LGBTQ people should be treated fairly at work.
Data Points
70%
of Chinese respondents knew at least one LGBTQ person
Report

Introduction

Following a period of growth and optimism in Chinese LGBTQ1 rights and advocacy, the past decade has been marked by setbacks, including increased curtailment of internet access to LGBTQ-supportive social media resources and an increase in government interventions that reduced, and sometimes made illegal, activities of LGBTQ (among other) civil society organizations.2 At the same time, little is known about the general Chinese public’s view of LGBTQ people and their rights. In this survey, we sought to assess the general public’s attitudes toward key LGBTQ issues and to what extent official policies represent public attitudes. We surveyed the mainland Chinese public about their familiarity with and acceptance of LGBTQ people and attitudes toward policy issues such as discrimination at work, same-sex marriage, and LGBTQ people raising children.

This investigation aims to bring to light societal perspectives and foster informed discussions in areas often overlooked or underrepresented in current discourse about LGBTQ lives in mainland China. We focused on public attitudes toward LGBTQ individuals in social and personal spheres. We explored the public’s perspectives on workplace equality and campus bullying and assessed people’s attitudes toward same-sex marriage and parenting—important domains in which LGBTQ people’s legal rights are not recognized in China.

Additionally, we evaluated public expectations of media portrayal and corporate sector support of LGBTQ people. Many international corporations have explicit LGBTQ-supportive policies in other countries but are silent about these policies within mainland China and other countries where LGBTQ rights are not recognized.3 By assessing the Chinese public’s attitudes about media and corporate portrayals of LGBTQ people, our study provides insight into these routes to inclusivity and acceptance.

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Positive Attitudes Toward LGBTQ People in Mainland China

We use the term LGBTQ throughout this report to refer to lesbians, gay men, bisexual, transgender, and queer identified people. The survey was conducted in Chinese and used terms referring to these groups that make sense in the Chinese context but are not literally translatable as LGBTQ (see English and Chinese language survey questionnaires in the Appendix).

Gao, L., Cheng, C., Hu, O., & Pu, B. (2023, June 13). For China’s LGBTQ community, safe spaces are becoming harder to find. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/china-beijing-lgbt-center-rcna85528; Wu, H. (2023, May 16). Beijing LGBT center shuttered as crackdown grows in China. The Associated Press (AP). https://apnews.com/article/china-beijing-lgbt-center-shutdown-a5643c680e1faf5c8a7a7d9bdd627d6f; Hernández, J.C. & Mou Z. (2018, April 15). ‘I am gay, not a pervert’: Furor in China as Sina Weibo bans gay content. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/15/world/asia/china-gay-ban-sina-weibo-.html; Hong, N. & Wang, Z. (2023, June 3). With rainbow flags, 2 students test China’s shrinking L.G.B.T.Q. space. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/03/world/asia/rainbow-flags-china-lgbtq.html

Kong, S. (2021, December 23). Pride-friendly at home, queerphobic in China. FairPlanet. https://www.fairplanet.org/story/pride-friendly-at-home-queerphobic-in-china/