In campus survey, Shanghai University asks for lists of LGBTQ+ students

The form, which went viral on social media, is a ‘campus survey’ and states that the colleges must carry out research and give information about any LGBTQ+ students that the colleges might have.

Shanghai University has reportedly asked its colleges to fill out a survey for “relevant requirements” and make a list of students who identify as LGBTQ+.

The form, which went viral on social media, is a ‘campus survey’ and states that the colleges must carry out research and give information about any LGBTQ+ students that the colleges might have.

Apart from their sexual orientation, the survey also asks colleges about ‘ideological status, political stance, state of health, mental illnesses, interpersonal relationships and anthropological disorders’ of the students.

As per the viral screenshot, the university calls for a need for psychological counselling centers that would cooperate with colleges and ‘consult students with abnormal psychology’. It further states that the centres should help students form a “corrective view of love and family”. Talking about student leaders, it mentions that student leaders are an important starting point for collecting student information.

It states that there is a need for ‘relevant training’ of student leaders to help them form a “corrective understanding” of LGBT students.

Protocol, China’s tech news organisation, reported on Monday that QQ, which is a Tencent-owned messaging platform with over half a billion users in China, had blocked search terms like ‘gay’, ‘LGBTQ’, ‘lesbian’ and Chinese slang words for the same.

The organisation reported that the search for these terms prompts this notice – “use the Internet in a civil manner. Say no to harmful information.” QQ shows the same message when users search for pornographic content.

Earlier this year, WeChat was widely called out for blocking and deleting accounts of LGBTQ+ students. According to The Guardian, some of the groups, including registered student clubs and unofficial groups, had been operating for years as a safe space for China’s LGBTQ+ community.

Accessing the blocked accounts was met with messages saying that the account had been blocked and was only deactivated after “receiving relevant complaints”.

Reuters reported that when some groups tried to access the accounts, they received a notice saying that they had “violated regulations on the management of accounts offering public information service on the Chinese internet”.

In August last year, China’s major annual celebration of sexual minorities, Shanghai Pride, announced its shutdown. The organisation abruptly said that it was cancelling all its events and was “taking a break”.

“Over the past 12 years, we worked hard to enrich the culture and diversity of this city that we love so much,” said Shanghai Pride in a statement.

Calling it the end of the rainbow for them, the organisers said, “ShanghaiPRIDE regrets to announce that we are cancelling all upcoming activities and taking a break from scheduling any future events. We love our community, and we are grateful for the experiences we’ve shared together. No matter what, we will always be proud – and you should be, too.”

In February this year, a court, in the Jiangsu province, ruling in favour of a Jinan University textbook that stated that homosexuality was a “psychological disorder”, said that it wasn’t a factual error but just “perpetual difference”, Reuters reported.

Homosexuality was considered a mental disorder in China until 2001 and was then removed by the Chinese Psychiatric Association.

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