同志权益促进会编辑团队 LGBT权促会 / LGBT Rights Promotion Association Editorial Team LGBT Rights Promotion Association
Brief introduction of the case
On July 6, 2017, due to the stigmatization of homosexuality in the book "Mental Health Education for College Students", Xixi appointed an attorney to file a product quality dispute lawsuit with the People’s Court of Suyu District, Suqian City, Jiangsu Province, because there were errors in the textbooks involved. Sued Guangzhou Jinan University Press and Jiangsu Zhouyi E-commerce Co., Ltd., and Guangzhou Branch of Jiangsu Zhouyi E-commerce Co., Ltd. (JD online shopping platform) on the grounds of obvious content quality problems such as misleading and misleading.
On July 28, 2020, the case was finally heard at the People’s Court of Suyu District, Suqian City, Jiangsu Province after three postponed trials.
The textbook involved: 2013 edition of "Mental Health Education for College Students"
Trial record: the three defendants were absent and the plaintiff was interrupted many times
1. The case was heard in the People's Court of Suyu District, Suqian City, Jiangsu Province. The hearing was held at 9:30 a.m. on July 28, 2020, and ended at about 11 a.m. The trial lasted for more than one hour.
2. The party, Xixi, was unable to go to the court to participate in the trial due to the epidemic. Xixi requested the court to postpone the hearing in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, but was not approved by the court.
3. The defendants, Jiangsu Zhouyi Electronic Commerce Co., Ltd., Guangzhou Branch of Jiangsu Zhouyi Electronic Commerce Co., Ltd., Guangzhou Jinan University Press Co., Ltd. and their attorneys did not appear in the People's Court of Suyu District that day and were absent from this trial. The first and second defendants never submitted any evidence or opinions.
4. When the lawyer representing the West and the West was presenting evidence about non-psychological barriers to homosexuality, the presiding judge suspended the trial on the grounds of "something to deal with". After the adjournment, the lawyer's statement was interrupted again on the grounds that "written opinions can be submitted directly, and in order to save time in the trial, the evidence cannot be listed in court". Fortunately, the lawyer has roughly completed the presentation of the core evidence involving non-psychological disorders of homosexuality.
5. In the follow-up trial, the presiding judge of this case once again interrupted the attorney representing the client’s opinions on the grounds of “saving trial time”.
6. In the cross-examination link, even if the defendant does not appear in court under normal circumstances, this link can still proceed normally. However, the judge in this case advocated abolishing the cross-examination link, but the lawyers representing the West and West still insisted on issuing cross-examination opinions on the evidence listed by the defendant.
7. In the final summary of the submissions, the presiding judge once again interrupted the Western and Western attorneys' presentation of the client's statement in order to save time in the trial, but with the lawyer's insistence, the lawyer finally completed a client's statement of about two hundred words.
Focus of dispute in this case
Controversy 1: Is the textbook classifying homosexuality as a sexual psychological disorder is an intellectual error?
The defendant Jinan University Press’s written legal opinion submitted in court mentioned: “On December 5, 2016, the Guangdong Provincial Press Publishing Bureau’s document "On Reflecting the Errors in the Textbook "Mental Health Education for College Students" of Jinan University Press" "The Report on the Handling Situation" believes that the content of the "Mental Health Education for College Students" complies with the relevant standards and regulations of our country's laws, and there are no intellectual and logical errors in the description of homosexuality in the book."
This report is the only piece of evidence related to homosexuality submitted by Jida Press. The report believes that there are three reasons why the description of homosexuality in the book is not wrong: first, CCMD-3 “the original civilization clearly included homosexuality as a sexual psychological disorder”; second, it lists international standards such as ICD-10 for reporting letters. Explaining that homosexuality is not a sexual psychological barrier, the document responds to “CCMD-3’s compilation principle is not only to be in line with international standards, but also in line with China’s national conditions”; third, because China implements a heterosexual marriage system, “Therefore, all textbooks are compiled Must comply with Chinese law."
As the judge advocated canceling the cross-examination link, the lawyer representing the plaintiff did not have the opportunity to challenge the defendant's evidence in court.
It is worth mentioning that although homosexuality as a kind of sexual orientation has been deceased, this report still reflects two major issues with the issue of homosexuality decayed. First of all, CCMD-3 has not fully achieved the de-pathology of homosexuality. Homosexuality who "felt pain for their own sexual orientation and wish to change their sexual orientation" is still regarded as a mental illness. In addition, the ambiguous and unclear original text of CCMD-3 has increased the difficulty of proof. Secondly, it is still unclear and controversial whether CCMD-3 or ICD is the classification and diagnosis standard of mental illness in my country. (For more discussion, see the article "Three Billboards, A 3251km Anti-Gay Reversal Treatment Action")
Although there is a certain degree of difficulty, in response to the defendant's claim, the plaintiff has submitted 30 pieces of evidence before the court to prove that the teaching material classified homosexuality as a sexual psychological disorder is an intellectual error. Specifically, the evidence can be divided into the following four parts:
1. In order to prove that homosexuality as a sexual orientation is no longer considered a mental illness in CCMD-3, the plaintiff submitted the following evidence:
In 2001, members of the CCMD-3 working group received media interviews and oral records, and the CCMD-3 working group published a study on the "Psychological Condition of Homosexuals and the Influencing Factors of Its Formation" in academic journals. In these materials, members of the CCMD-3 working group have explained the provisions of "sexual orientation disorder" and "homosexuality", and clearly stated that homosexuality as a whole concept is no longer regarded as a disease in China. "Disharmonious homosexuality" is regarded by CCMD-3 as a sexual psychological disorder.
2. In order to solve the problem of unclear classification and diagnostic criteria for mental disorders in China, and to prove that the National Health and Family Planning Commission requires ICD-10 as the domestic diagnostic criteria for mental disorders. The plaintiff submitted the following documents issued by the Health Commission:
"Guiding Principles for the Treatment of Mental Disorders (2013 Edition)", "Psychotherapy Norms (2013 Edition)", "Notice of the Ministry of Health on Revision and Issuance of the Home Page of Hospitalized Medical Records", "About Issuing the Eleventh Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD- 11) Notice in Chinese version.
These documents are used to prove that including the field of psychiatry, the country has used ICD-10 as the national standard for disease classification since 2002. Compared to CCMD-3, ICD-10 is more authoritative and has been recognized by the national health administration.
3. Expert opinion. The experts who provided expert opinions for this case were Fang Gang from the Institute of Sex and Gender, Beijing Forestry University, Liu Yan, a physician from Beijing Huilongguan Hospital, and Jack Drescher, a member of the ICD-11 Working Group of the World Health Organization. The expert consultation catalog includes two CCMD-3 working group members, Zhang Beichuan, a member of the expert advisory committee of the Ministry of Health, and Xie Yongbiao, director of the Guangdong Institute of Mental Health.
4. Supplementary materials include: Chinese representatives' comments on homosexuality issues at the United Nations meeting, and the judgment of the two SLR reverse treatment cases.
Controversy 2: Whether there are product quality problems in the teaching materials involved
According to Article 5 of the "Book Quality Management Regulations", the editing quality of books with an error rate of more than one in ten thousand is deemed unqualified.
The plaintiff, in accordance with the provisions of the "Calculation Method for the Quality Error Rate of Book Editing," and entrusting relevant persons with professional editing qualifications, counted that there were 82.5 book editing errors in the textbook "Mental Health Education for College Students" (including the Homosexuality is classified as an intellectual error of "sexual psychological disorder"), and the calculated book editing error rate is 2.7908602 per 10,000, far exceeding the error rate of 1 in 10,000. Therefore, the plaintiff argued that the teaching materials involved should be determined to have product quality problems.
In addition, the defendant did not find an independent third-party professional organization for testing in this case. Instead, the defendant Jinan University Press’s 2013 self-inspection report "Book Editing Quality Inspection Records" was listed as the defense evidence. Even though the inspection scope of the inspection record sheet was not complete, it was only 92 to 180 pages instead of the entire book, but the defendant still used the record sheet to prove that its editing quality was qualified and there were no editing quality problems, insisting that “the books involved are of qualified quality. No quality problems".
In addition, the defendant also believed that the plaintiff’s rights protection activities were malicious litigation, which caused reputation and moral loss to the defendant. Guangzhou Jinan University Press Co., Ltd. (one of the defendants) claimed to reserve the right to pursue the infringement liability of the defendant.
The plaintiff’s choice to sue the books involved on the grounds of "product quality" was really helpless Mainland China’s specific laws and regulations concerning “gender equality education” currently only exist in local regulations and are mostly advocacy language (for example, Article 7 of the “Regulations on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests of Jiangsu Province” stipulates: “Schools shall provide Equality education.”), does not appear in the form of a special law like Taiwan’s "Gender Equality Education Law", so there is no corresponding direct and effective judicial relief channel based on gender equality education. Due to the current gap in China’s legislative justice in this field, the plaintiff Xixi can only use the “curve to save the country” method to sue the defendant on the grounds of “product quality” and correct the mistake of identifying homosexuality as a “psychological disorder” in the books involved in the case. This case can correct the misidentification of homosexuality in most psychological textbooks currently on the market, thereby promoting the improvement of gender equality education and promoting the public's more recognition, understanding and respect for "sexual or gender diversity".
Xixi's final statement of the parties in the trial
"From the beginning of the case to the trial, it has been three full years. As a homosexual student, whenever I see the textbooks involved in the case list homosexuality as a sexual psychological disorder, I will be deeply stung. It arouses me because of my homosexuality. The memory of being laughed at by my classmates also reminded me that although homosexuality has been decimated in China, there are still people who continue to produce wrong knowledge and encourage stigma.
"I believe that everyone here, including the judges and defendants, have been squeezed out because of certain personal traits, or because of their local accent, or their fat and thin bodies, or from migrant families. I believe you can empathize with the minority students "Daily" on campus: being isolated, cursed, beaten, even sexually assaulted...We should not bear all this, let alone continue to tolerate discrimination, we should make changes.
"At the end of the trial, when the lawyer told me that although the latter part of the process was frequently interrupted, the evidence related to the de-pathological process of homosexuality and the statement of the client were basically completed, I was a little surprised in my heart. That was because the lawyer and I had An extremely low expectation: Any expression related to homosexuality will be interrupted by the defendant and the judge on the grounds that it has nothing to do with the case, and the voice of comrades will be completely obliterated. Therefore, my expectation for the trial is to have a few minutes of discussion Textbook de-stigmatization space.
How humble is such a desire. In the court trial, the parties can fully express their opinions without being interrupted. The lawyer has the opportunity to question the defendant's evidence. This is a very basic right in itself to ensure the fairness and fairness of the trial. I reflect on the fact that I have such low expectations because I live in an environment where gay voices are suppressed and disrespected: In the case, the publisher and the editor refused to talk, the court restricted the audience in disguise, and the trial was postponed for up to 3 years... …Outside the case, textbooks that stigmatize homosexuality are scattered in libraries and classrooms, while homosexual groups themselves have few opportunities to be heard on campus.
The absence of the defendant and his attorney at the trial is disappointing and angry. Perhaps the other party is disdain to respond to our queries, or dare not face questions that may embarrass them. If the defendant is absent from the trial, let us continue to follow the case outside the trial and on social platforms, ask them questions through emails and phone calls, and raise questions in the mental health education class of Jinan University. Don't give up every opportunity to speak up, we have to make them unavoidable.
Finally, I would like to thank the lawyers for their hard work and wisdom, as well as my partners for coming to observe and testify across cities. You are fighting against absurdity with perseverance, softness and cuteness. "Finally, I would like to thank the lawyers for their hard work and wisdom, as well as my partners for coming to observe and testify across cities. You are fighting against absurdity with perseverance, softness and cuteness. "
The results of the first instance of this case will be announced in the near future. The Association for the Promotion of Equal Rights and Interests for Gays will update the latest developments of the case in real time, hoping that a fair and just judgment will be obtained in this case.
Finally, I would like to thank Xixi for her perseverance and perseverance over the past three years, thank the lawyers and partners of the peace organization who participated in helping this case, and thank everyone who followed this case in front of the screen. let's work hard together!