Asia
Chinese activist continues fight for LGBTQ, intersex rights from U.S.
Yanhui Peng successfully challenged ‘conversion therapy’ clinic
Yanhui Peng, co-founder of LGBT Rights Advocacy China, a Chinese advocacy group, in 2014 sought to expose doctors and therapists who practice so-called conversion therapy.
He saw an ad on Baidu, a Chinese search engine, for a therapist in the city of Chongqing who used electroshock therapy to “cure” a person’s homosexuality. The therapist charged patients $5,000 (34,506 Chinese yuan) for 30 treatments.
“They will make sure you will be straight,” Peng recalled to the Washington Blade during a May 19 interview in D.C.
Peng decided to receive a treatment, which cost $90 (621.12 Chinese yuan) and lasted an hour.
“He asked me to lay down on a sofa and he started to hypnotize me,” recalled Peng. “He asked me to close my eyes, calm down, breathe in, breathe out.”
Peng described the room in which he was as “small” and “very uncomfortable.”
“He then started to ask me to think about a situation, having sex with men, and see if I have some mental or physical reaction to move my fingers … he didn’t wait until I moved my finger. He just used the electroshock equipment. He electroshocked me on my arms,” he said. “It wasn’t so strong, but it was scary because it was sudden.”
Peng said he received two additional electroshock treatments before he left the clinic. Peng kept his receipt and included it in a complaint against the therapist that he filed in court.
A judge ruled in his favor, noting homosexuality is not a disease and “gay cure advertisement is illegal.” The ruling is the first time a judge in China ruled in favor of LGBTQ and intersex rights.
“Luckily we won the case,” Peng told the Blade. “It was a surprise.”
Peng said the ruling inspired LGBT Rights Advocacy China to file additional cases.
One case involved a 37-year-old man whose parents forcibly admitted him to a mental hospital for 19 days because he is gay. Peng told the Blade that personnel forced the man to take medication and punished him if he refused.
Another case involved a kindergarten teacher who was fired after he posted gay-specific news on social media. LGBT Rights Advocacy China also represented a lesbian couple from China who had a child after they legally married in Los Angeles.
LGBT Rights Advocacy China shut down in November 2021 amid increased government restrictions against NGOs and what the Associated Press described as “social activism.”
Peng, who currently studies at Yale University, continues to champion LGBTQ and intersex rights in China. Peng, among other things, speaks with IBM and other companies with offices in China about the need to support their LGBTQ and intersex employees.
“In China, they focus on economic development and there are so many international companies,” he said. “More and more companies realize there is a pink dollar.”
‘I just persuaded myself that I’m not gay’
Peng, 39, grew up in a small town about 180 miles outside of Guangzhou, a city in southern China that is close to Hong Kong. Peng was still in the closet when he enrolled in a Guangzhou university in 2002.
“It was my first time knowing the term homosexuality,” he said, noting he learned about homosexuality on the internet that had just begun to become widely available in China. “It was so negative because when I searched the term ‘tong zhi’ (gay in Chinese) it all appeared abnormal, [gay people] have sex with everybody and get diseases like HIV. I was scared. I thought it wasn’t ok.”
Peng said he went to his university’s library to research homosexuality. He told the Blade that most of the books he read “didn’t mention homosexuality” and the few that did “said homosexuality is a disease.”
“I couldn’t even accept myself,” he said. “I just persuaded myself that I’m not gay.”
Peng said he didn’t talk about his homosexuality with his family, in part, because his classmates bullied him because he was “kind of feminine.” Peng told the Blade that he was afraid to use the bathroom in school because he “was afraid that when I would go to the toilet people would laugh at me.”
Peng said he “persuaded myself to fall in love with other girls” when he was a university student.
He told the Blade that he was still in the closet when he began to work for an NGO and “started to realize there were LGBT groups in Guangzhou.”
“The community was there, but I was so scared to join them,” said Peng. “I tried to be a volunteer and persuade myself that I’m not gay.”
Peng was 27 in 2010 he finally mustered the courage to come out to a colleague on whom he had a crush while they were participating in a two-day hiking event. The man was straight, but Peng told the Blade that his reaction to his homosexuality was “so positive.”
“He encouraged me a lot,” said Peng. “I forgot to tell him that I love him.”
“After that I started to come out to everybody,” he added.
Peng in 2013 quit his job and co-founded LGBT Rights Advocacy China. He filed suit against the Chongqing conversion therapy clinic the following year.
Peng’s parents still did not know about his homosexuality, but they did watch him on Chinese television after the judge ruled in his favor.
“The national media talked about our case,” he said. “All my relatives called them and asked what happened, what happened to your son. I think they got a lot of pressure. They presented not to know and haven’t discussed this topic with me. They know … I think they don’t accept it. They can’t control me because I live so far away.”
Peng over the summer married his husband in Utah.
Government censorship, COVID-19 lockdowns among community challenges
China decriminalized homosexuality in 1997, but the government has banned depictions of same-sex relationships and “sissy men” in the media. Transgender people who are at least 18 can legally change their gender after the undergo sex-reassignment surgery.
The State Department’s 2021 human rights report cites reports of discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The report also notes LGBT Rights Advocacy China’s decision to shut down.
Peng told the Blade that the Chinese government’s sweeping lockdowns to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have had a serious impact on LGBTQ and intersex people.
He noted NGOs in Wuhan worked with local authorities to provide medications to people with HIV/AIDS when the city was locked down from Jan. 23, 2020, until April 8, 2020. Peng said they also sought to hold virtual meetings in which LGBTQ and intersex people could participate from their homes.
Pride Month events took place in Shanghai in June 2020, but the city was under a strict COVID-19 lockdown when Peng spoke with the Blade.
“It’s kind of difficult,” he said.
Hong Kong had been scheduled to host the Gay Games in November, but the pandemic prompted organizers to postpone them to 2023. The Federation of Gay Games, which organizes the quadrennial event, earlier this year announced Hong Kong will co-host it with Guadalajara, Mexico.
Gigi Chao, co-founder of Hong Kong Marriage Equality, late last year during an interview with the Blade dismissed calls to boycott the 2023 Gay Games over China’s human rights record.
Peng said he and other activists in China “were so happy that Hong Kong was going to organize” the Gay Games, but he did not specifically discuss the human rights concerns. Peng nevertheless said he continues to support the event’s organizers in Hong Kong.
“I hope they won’t give up,” he said. “It’s a good opportunity for more businesses because there are a lot of international businesses in Hong Kong to show support. I think they should speak out to support them.”
Asian Development Bank LGBTQ, intersex safeguards ‘quite important’
Chantale Wong, the U.S. director of the Asian Development Bank who is the first openly lesbian American ambassador, was born in Shanghai in 1954. Her parents in 1960 placed her in the bottom of a boat that brought her and her grandmother to Hong Kong, which was a British colony at the time.
Peng praised Wong and her ambassadorship. He has also testified in support of LGBTQ and intersex-specific safeguards for the Asian Development Bank.
“It’s quite important because ADB invests $2 billion every year in China,” said Peng. “If there’s an LGBT safeguard, these projects can be LGBT-inclusive, friendly … can have some benefit for LGBT people.”
Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan government withdraws support for LGBTQ tourism initiative
Prominent religious leaders criticized campaign
The Sri Lankan government has withdrawn its support for an initiative that encourages LGBTQ tourists to visit the country.
The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority last September partnered with Equal Ground, an LGBTQ rights group, on the initiative.
The Daily Mirror, a Sri Lankan newspaper, reported Sri Lanka Development Authority Chair Buddhika Hewawasam in a letter to Equal Ground Executive Director Rosanna Flamer-Caldera said his agency recognizes “the potential of this project to diversify our tourism markets and position Sri Lanka as a safe, inclusive, and welcoming destination for all travelers.”
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, along other prominent Christian and Buddhist leaders criticized the initiative. Attorney General Parinda Ranasinghe on Feb. 10 indicated the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority had rescinded its support for the campaign.
Flamer-Caldera on April 10 acknowledged the criticism over the initiative but added “the fact that the letter has been rescinded doesn’t make any difference.”
“We’re still doing work with the tourism industry who have basically opened up to us and are willing participants in the project,” said Flamer-Caldera. “They realize the potential of the boost to our tourism industry as well as boosting our economy.”
Sections 365 and 365A of Sri Lanka’s colonial-era penal code criminalizes consensual same-sex sexual relations.
The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in 2022 ruled the criminalization law violated Flamer-Caldera’s rights. The Sri Lankan Supreme Court in 2023 said a bill that would decriminalize homosexuality is constitutional.
Transgender people in Sri Lanka since 2016 have been able to request a Gender Recognition Certificate that allows them to legally change their name and gender on ID cards. Flamer-Caldera noted to the Blade that LGBTQ rights opponents have challenged the Gender Recognition Certificate in the Supreme Court.
India
Amendments to India’s transgender rights law criticized
Lawmakers approved changes that narrow definition of trans person
India has enacted the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026, that will reshape the country’s legal approach to gender identity.
Both houses of parliament approved the legislation last month, and it received presidential approval on March 28.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026, narrows the definition of a trans person, removes the provision for self-perceived gender identity, and requires medical certification for legal recognition. These changes mark a shift from the framework established under a 2019 law.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026, replaces the earlier definition of a trans person — previously framed as someone whose gender does not align with the gender assigned at birth — with a set of specified categories. It further provides that the term does not include, and is deemed never to have included, people defined solely by their sexual orientation or by self-perceived gender identity.
The bill retains certain categories within its definition, including people with socio-cultural identities such as kinner, hijra, aravani, or jogta. It also includes people with variations in sex characteristics at birth, such as differences in primary sexual characteristics, external genitalia, chromosomes or hormones from the normative standards of male or female bodies.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026, removes certain categories from the definition, including a trans man or trans woman, irrespective of whether such a person has undergone sex reassignment surgery, hormone therapy, laser procedures, or other forms of medical intervention. It also excludes genderqueer people — a category that had been recognized under the earlier framework. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026, however, includes eunuchs, as well as people compelled to assume a trans identity through mutilation, emasculation, castration, or other surgical, chemical or hormonal interventions.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026, also revises the process for legal recognition, requiring a trans person to apply to a district magistrate for a certificate of identity, which can now be issued only after the recommendation of a designated medical board. The law specifies that the board will be headed by a senior medical officer and may include other experts. It further provides that individuals issued such a certificate will be entitled to change their first name in official documents, including birth records and other government-issued identification.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026, also introduces stricter penalties for certain offences, including cases in which a person is forced to assume a trans identity through kidnapping, coercion or physical harm. Such offenses may attract imprisonment ranging from 10 years to life in prison, along with fines, depending on the severity and whether the victim is an adult or a child. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026, further requires medical institutions to report gender-affirming surgeries to the district magistrate, and mandates that individuals obtain a revised certificate of identity following such procedures.
India’s 2011 Census recorded 487,803 trans persons, yet only 5.6 percent had applied for a trans identity card, according to the Washington Blade’s previous reporting. These identity cards, required to access government welfare programs, have remained difficult to obtain, with delays and administrative barriers limiting uptake.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026, revised the certification process, which introduces additional requirements for legal recognition. This change is against this backdrop of uneven access to identity documentation.
India’s Election Commission in 2009 directed states to modify voter registration forms to include an “other” category, allowing individuals who did not identify as male or female to register accordingly. The Supreme Court in National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India in 2014 recognized trans persons as a “third gender” and affirmed their right to self-identification.
Justice Kalavamkodath Sivasankara Radhakrishna Panicker said that “recognition of transgenders as a third gender is not a social or medical issue, but a human rights issue.” Parliament in 2019 approved the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019.
An advisory committee the Supreme Court created that former Delhi High Court Justice Asha Menon has urged the government to withdraw the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026. The panel said the proposal to deny self-identification of gender is inconsistent with theNational Legal Services Authority v. Union of India ruling.
Menon on March 25 wrote to Social Justice Minister Virendra Kumar conveying the panel’s resolution. According to the Hindu newspaper, the committee described the amendment as a “great shock” and a “tremendous setback” to efforts to mainstream trans communities.
The Queer Hindu Alliance, an advocacy group that seeks to uphold the dignity of LGBTQ people within India’s cultural and constitutional framework, expressed concern over the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026.
“We write not in the spirit of opposition, but in the spirit of samvad — dialogue — and with a sincere call for community consultation before this legislation proceeds further,” the group said in a statement. “The Supreme Court of India recognized the concerns of the transgender community in 2014. The National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India judgment affirmed that a person knows who they are. This bill seeks to reverse that. The Queer Hindu Alliance finds this troubling as a question of basic human dignity.”
The Queer Hindu Alliance added that India “is not a young civilization fumbling for answers on how to understand human identity.”
“This culture has contemplated the nature of the self more deeply, and for longer, than any legal system that has existed. This is not a foreign conversation imported from the West. It is a conversation Bharat (India) has always been capable of having, on its own terms,” the Queer Hindu Alliance said.
Harish Iyer, an LGBTQ rights activist who was among those who fought for marriage equality in the Supreme Court, told the Blade that the amendment is “not just a rollback, but a blatant, arrogant insult” to the Supreme Court.
“The NALSA judgment gave us the fundamental dignity of self-determination — the right to look in the mirror and say, ‘This is who I am.’ This amendment drags us right back into the dark ages, handing over our bodily autonomy to a bunch of sarkari babus (government officers) and medical boards,” said Iyer. “But here is the most absurd part: you simply cannot define if someone is trans through any physical test. How exactly are you going to diagnose a human mind? Are they only going to regard those who have had gender affirmation surgery as trans? Because that is fundamentally not the definition of being transgender; transition is a choice and a privilege, not a prerequisite for identity. Or are they going to look at someone born with ambiguous genitalia and label them trans? Because that is intersex, which is a completely different reality.”
“Forcing a trans person to undergo degrading physical scrutiny based on the government’s spectacular ignorance of basic gender science isn’t a legal process; it’s state-sponsored trauma,” he added. “We fought too hard for our dignity to let a bureaucratic tribunal demand that we strip down to prove our humanity.”
Iyer said the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026, goes beyond protection and instead imposes control.
“You don’t ‘protect’ a community by criminalizing the chosen families and allies who offer safe haven to trans youth fleeing abusive homes,” he said, referring to provisions in the law. “This bill is about regulation, policing and control. By gatekeeping who gets to be trans and punishing those who support us, the government isn’t acting as a guardian — it’s acting as a warden. It is a calculated attack on our existence.”
Iyer said the revised definition could exclude individuals who do not fall within the listed categories.
“It effectively writes them out of existence,” he said.
Iyer added the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026, could create an administrative “black hole” for gender-fluid individuals and nonbinary people who do not fit into the government’s rigid categories.
“If you are legally invisible, you don’t get access to gender-affirming healthcare, you don’t get legal protection, and you are entirely cut off from participating in society,” said Iyer. “They are trying to legislate us into non-existence because they are too lazy to understand us.”
Japan
Japanese Supreme Court to consider marriage equality
Japan only G7 country that does not legally recognize same-sex couples
The Japanese Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will consider six marriage equality lawsuits.
NHK, the country’s public broadcaster, noted all 15 of the court’s justices will consider the case.
Japan is the only G7 country that does not legally recognize same-sex couples, despite several court rulings in recent years that found the denial of marriage benefits to gays and lesbians unconstitutional.
Tokyo High Court Judge Ayumi Higashi last November upheld Japan’s legal definition of a family as a man and a woman and their children.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who became the country’s first female head of government last October, opposes marriage rights for same-sex couples. She has also reiterated the constitution’s assertion that the family is an institution based around “the equal rights of husband and wife.”
Same-sex couples can legally marry in Taiwan, Nepal, and Thailand.
NHK reported the Supreme Court is expected to issue its ruling in early 2027.
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