Introduction
China has the highest number of homosexual population in the world. Homosexuality is something that the Chinese society and the government are gradually accepting after careful consideration. Previously, in the Communist China, gays and lesbians lived in secret, because the government considered the homosexuals as having mental illness. In fact, the security agents of the government used to arrest the lesbians and gays. The gays and lesbians were then charged in court for hooliganism and creating public disorder as there was no law in China that prohibited homosexuality. In 1991, Hong Kong legalized intercourse between homosexuals. Before accepting homosexuality as legitimate, Hong Kong used the laws instituted by British, the colonial masters, which illegalized sodomy.
Until towards the end of the 20th Century, the People’s Republic still considered homosexuality as being both illegal and a mental problem. The Republic used the ‘hooligan” law to criminalize gays while the Chinese Psychiatric Association considered them as having some kind of a mental disorder. However, in 1999, the Chinese Psychiatric Association conducted a research study on 51 Chinese gays and lesbians to evaluate their mental state for a period of one year. Their result was that only six people in the sample had emotional disorders. The results made the association in 2001, to declare homosexuality as not being a mental problem and it effectively removed it from their list of mental disorders.
Since the declaration, there has been increase in the gay community in China, with dozens of gays hanging in bars and nightclubs across the country where they can interact. There are many websites that are run by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual (LGBT) organizations, which organize campaigns for their rights, film festivals, pride parades as well as educating them on ways of preventing HIV/AIDS. These have made the public to begin accepting homosexuality and the well educated people who have gone up to the university level have become less concerned with the issue.
Analysis of Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist regarding Homosexuality
In Confucianism ideology, there is no verdict on the way people should conduct their sexual behaviour. It considers sex as a kind of personal and social relationship that requires systematic regulation and organization. Despite the fact that Confucian culture stressed on the need for people to get married and bear children, it permitted sexual relationship between same genders, sex with prostitutes and marrying several wives. Since, the society was under male dominance, there was no room for questioning their morals. Nonetheless, there were two main restrictions on the sexual activities in the Confucianism ideology. The first was that it should appropriately follow the family-kinship and second, it should not be carried out in extreme. In the contemporary China, there is no problem with two people of the same sex holding hands in the public as well as booking a hotel room and sharing a bed. However, it is displeasing for two people of opposite sex to book a hotel room and share bed.
In Taoism ideology, sexual activities improve the health status and …