China`s authorities is generally seen as conservative against sexual minorities such as homosexual love, but at a recent journalist meeting of the National people`s Congress, officials in charge of legal affairs revealed that a large number of people proposed that "legalization of same-sex marriage" should be included in the civil code.
This is a rare official in China to touch on same-sex marriage related issues on formal occasions. China is in the process of preparing a new civil code to replace the existing marriage Law and other existing law next year.
Chinese media also voted over whether to vote for same-sex marriage advocacy over the weekend, attracting millions of users in two days.
But some scholars point out that this time officials are more likely to respond to social voices about same-sex marriage legislation, given the tight time and procedures, the possibility of being formally legislation next year is "very small."
What`s the proposal?
The legal work Committee of the standing Committee of the National people`s Congress of China held a press conference on Friday (December 20). Speaker Yue Zhongming told the media that in the process of soliciting comments on the three draft drafts of the marriage Family compilation of the Civil Code, some people held that the legalization of same-sex marriage should be included in the law.
From the end of October to November, the Chinese people`s Congress openly solicited comments from the public on the draft marriage family through the Internet, and received nearly 240000 opinions and more than 5600 letters from nearly 200000 people online, Yue Zhongming said.
He said the opinions mainly focused on "improving the scope of close relatives, amending the revocable marriage cancellation authorities, further improving husband and wife common debt, same-sex marriage legalization, and so on."
The official`s comments quickly drew attention and discussion on social media in China. Topic # there are suggestions that same-sex marriage should be legalized in the Civil Code # on the Weibo hot search list, reading 730 million.
"this is a sign of real progress, not GDP," said one Shanghai netizen who supported the proposal. His message received more than 20,000 likes.
``Support social diversity! ``Another Fujian user said.
However, not all netizens are supportive of this.
"the tradition of our country is` nothing is big`. If this is legal, will the next step be the legality of surrogacy?" A netizen left a message. She believes the legality of same-sex marriage may lead to more same-sexcouples having children through surrogacy.
Phoenix New Media, a Chinese media, launched a poll on Friday on whether or not to support the legalization of same-sex marriage into the Civil Code. The system shows that in just two days, it attracted nearly 7 million netizens to participate.
As of Sunday night, more than 4 million netizens chose "support", accounting for 58 percent, and 2.77 million users chose "no", accounting for 40 percent. A small number of netizens voted for "no support and no objection" or "none of my business."
So, will it happen?
China`s official public response to the legalization of same-sex marriage stems from consultation on the new draft Civil Code, which the authorities is stepping up.
China hopes to adopt a new Civil Code at the National "two sessions" to be held in March next year to formally replace some of the existing civil law, including the marriage family code, which will replace the current marriage Law.
The current marriage Law of China stipulates that China implements the marriage system of monogyny and equality between men and women, which means that the "marry" between the same sex does not have the effect of law in China, nor is it protected and bound by law.
Li Yinhe, a prominent Chinese sociologist, has submitted the Chinese same-sex marriage proposal to the Chinese people`s political Consultative Conference many times before the annual "two sessions" since 2003. But because she could not get enough sponsors, many of her proposals were not approved by the General Assembly.
"it is a landmark event for officials to take the initiative to acknowledge the issue," Xin Ying, executive director of the gay Center in Beijing, told The British Broadcasting Corporation.
Over the past few years, she said, a number of LGBT groups in China have called on people to express their views to the legal work Committee of the National people`s Congress (the legal work Committee) through the Internet or letter letters. Although not a formal legislation, a rare official response has shown that they are aware of everyone`s concerns and may be "testing public opinion".
Wan Miaoyan, a Sichuan lawer who has long focused on women`s rights, said the incident was a step forward, but she said it was "very unlikely" that its legislation would really be implemented next year.
She told The British Broadcasting Corporation that the legalization of same-sex marriage is only at the stage of consultation. Whether it will eventually be included in the draft for consideration by the standing Committee and submitted to nearly 3000 deputies to the National people`s Congress for a vote next year is unknown.
"many countries have gone through 20 or 30 years to legalize same-sex marriage," Wan Miaoyan said. "China is making progress, but the water is far from boiling."
The broaching saw of gay Movement in China
According to a white paper released in 2015 by Blued, China`s largest gay dating platform, there are nearly 70 million homosexual love people in China, accounting for about 5 percent of the total population. Although Chinese officials decriminalized and decriminalized homosexual love in 1997 and 2001, respectively, they remained conservative in general.
At the end of 2015, two official associations affiliated with the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) issued the General rules for the production of TV dramas, listing homosexual love with incest and, sexual abuse as prohibited in TV dramas.
Although the general rule caused public uproar, since homosexual love-related film and television works, novels have often been blocked and deleted on the Chinese Internet.
In 2016, a pair of gay partners in Changsha, Hunan Province, were refused to register marry with the Civil Affairs Bureau and filed with the court prosecute. It was seen as the first homosexual love maintain legal rights case in China`s mainland, but the judge finally sentenced the two men to lose.
But the plight of the, homosexual love group seems to have changed in 2019.
In July this year, the Nanjing Notary Office announced that it was open to LGBT groups, allowing homosexual love groups to determine their guardians and rights in writing. In August, Beijing also announced that two gay were notarized by express guardianship agreement and pre-life wills.
"overall, when the homosexual love issue is put forward in the form of judicial cases or legislation recommendations, government is more inclusive," Li Sipan, a Chinese gender researcher, told The British Broadcasting Corporation. "but government still has strong safety anxiety when it can lead to large-scale social mobilization."
But she says authorities need to be aware that safeguarding the rights of the homosual love community "essentially helps society solve a lot of difficult problems," such as hiv control and" wife-sharing," and promotes family harmony.
"the same wife" refers to a heterosexual woman who is married to a man. In china, a couple of heterosexuals and hossall love involved roughly 40,000, of which the "the same wife" accounts for most of the population. Many women think they are the victims, as many men have not admitted to their wives that they are homosexual love.
"Afraid that in other countries, there is a certain relationship with religion to a large extent.
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