After winning a landmark case against a hospital that subjected her to “electroshock conversion therapy”, a trans woman in China received 60,000 yuan (almost €8,000) in compensation. This is the first time a trans person has successfully challenged the use of conversion therapy in China.

Ling’er, a 28-year-old trans woman who uses a pseudonym, is a performance artist from Hebei province in northern China. Through live-streaming work, she was saving money to undergo gender reassignment surgery, and had come out to her parents, who strongly opposed her transition.

In 2022, her parents committed her to a psychiatric hospital, where she was reportedly diagnosed with “discordant sexual orientation”. She was then subjected to seven electroshock sessions over 97 days.

Speaking to The Guardian, Ling’er said: “It caused serious damage to my body. Every time I underwent the treatment, I would faint … I didn’t agree to it, but I had no choice.”

She said the hospital “tried to ‘correct me’ to make me conform to society’s expectations”.

The electroshock sessions caused her severe physical harm, including ongoing heart issues that require medication.

Following these events, the trans woman filed a lawsuit against the hospital and the use of electroshock conversion practices in China. “In China, the situation for transgender people is not very optimistic,” Ling’er said. “There’s a lack of protection for this group.”

Her case was heard before Changli County People’s Court in Qinhuangdao, a city in Hebei, which approved the 60,000 yuan award. LGBTQ+ activists hailed the verdict as a victory for trans rights in the country, where Ling’er became the first trans person to win a case against conversion therapy.

Such practices operate within a legal grey area in China. While homosexuality was officially removed from the list of psychiatric disorders in 2001, a diagnosis of “distress about one’s sexual orientation” remained, offering a loophole for psychiatrists to use conversion practices.

China’s medical guidelines were amended, removing this diagnosis from the latest version. However, enforcement and education in Chinese hospitals are still lacking. According to a study published in 2019, nearly one in five trans people in China reported being forced into conversion therapies.