Lesbian Chinese Woman Attempts Suicide to Escape Forced Marriage

by Alex DiBranco · 2010-06-01 16:00:00 UTC
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You cannot "correct" homosexuality. Not through ex-gay therapy. Not through "corrective rape." And not through forced marriage to a member of the opposite sex.

However, this doesn't stop people from trying.

Amanda Kloer writes on the Human Trafficking blog that a Chinese woman being called "Qinqin" recently attempted suicide after being forced into an arranged marriage with a strange man she was not attracted to — could not be attracted to, because she was a lesbian. Romeo and Juliet-style, Qinqin and the woman she loved decided that if they couldn't be together in life, they would prefer to be together in death, and entered into a suicide pact.

The attempted suicides failed. But that doesn't give this story a happy ending. I would think that an attempted suicide would provide a wake-up call to the woman's parents, demonstrating that it is better to let her live a happy life with the person she loves than to lose their daughter altogether. But Qinqin's parents are still trying to "fix" her sexual orientation, and are now planning to send her to therapy to try to turn her straight.

Sadly, Kloer writes that forced marriage for women, a form of human trafficking, as a "cure" for homosexuality is not a rare occurrence in China and many other countries. Under the same logic as the South Africa's corrective rape epidemic, lesbian sexual orientation is viewed as something that can be treated by just giving a woman a taste of a real man. And once forced into marriage, women often have no right to divorce without their husband's consent — Qinqin had begged to be released from her marriage before trying to commit suicide, to no avail.

Photo credit: back_garage

Alex DiBranco is a Change.org Editor who has worked for the Nation, Political Research Associates, and the Center for American Progress. She is now based in New York City.
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