Shandong University Students\u27 Views on Homosexuality

Relatively little research currently exists on the subject of homosexuality and LGBT rights within the present People’s Republic of China. Homosexual behavior itself has only been legal in the country since 1997, and it was only removed from the Chinese Psychiatric Association’s list of disorders in 2001. While a few studies are beginning to examine current Chinese attitudes towards the subject of homosexuality, it is not yet enough to get a rounded view of the subject, and more research must be done in order to provide more accurate data. It is to this purpose that this survey of Shandong University students was conducted, that it may add to the existing data on Chinese university students’ perceptions of and attitudes towards homosexuality. This paper will present the data obtained from the survey, highlighting patterns within the data and providing comparisons based on three separate variables: parents’ occupation, gender identity, and major at university. The goal of this paper is not to provide analysis as to why these students answered in the way that they did, but rather to add one more resource on the subject for future researchers to examine and analyze, in hopes of expanding the information base available for this area of study