Chinese sexologist reveals transgender relationship

By Zhang Lulu
0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, December 19, 2014
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Li Yinhe, a famous sex scholar and public intellectual, received much attention yesterday after revealing her 17-year relationship with a transgender man on her Sina blog. [File photo]

Li Yinhe, a famous sex scholar and public intellectual, received much attention yesterday after revealing her 17-year relationship with a transgender man on her Sina blog.

Li, the widow of respected novelist and intellectual Wang Xiaobo, has been writing on sexuality and advocating same-sex marriage in China for years.

The Dec. 18 post was a response to another online post which labeled her as a lesbian and criticized her as lying about her sexuality and sexual orientation.

Li took the chance to reveal her relationship with her unnamed partner and explain the difference between being a lesbian and being attracted to a transgender man. "I am a heterosexual, not a lesbian," she wrote, and her partner "was a transgender who is biologically a woman but is psychologically a man."

Li's blog post has been viewed more than 180,000 times and has received over 13,500 comments. Most of the comments were positive; one comment saying "the thoughts of Li Yinhe and Wang Xiaobo are 100 years ahead of the contemporary Chinese society" has received over 3,00 thumbs-up.

The attitude of the Chinese society to the LGBT community has indeed changed greatly over the years, thanks to the work of respected scholars like Li Yinhe, NGOs which campaign for LGBT rights, and influences from the Western and Japanese entertainment and cultural industry.

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