The LGBT+ community is still waiting for the Biden administration to respond to a recent Chinese court ruling that homosexuality is a mental disorder.
A court in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu recently ruled that being homosexual is a mental disorder. The court cited Chinese academic research to justify their position.
The ruling by the Jiangsu court upholds a lower court’s ruling that LBGT+ people are mentally disordered, the New York Post reported.
So far, the Biden administration has remained silent on the ruling. Their silence is in conflict with the Democratic party’s enthusiastic support of the LGBT+ community, and particularly transgender individuals.
On Feb. 4, less than a month after his presidential inauguration, Joe Biden threatened Ghana and other west African countries with economic sanctions if they didn’t expand protections for the LGBT+ community.
That same day, Biden directed U.S. agencies working abroad to work harder to combat the criminalization of homosexuals by foreign governments. Additionally, he directed the State Department to include anti-LGBTQ violence, discrimination and laws in its annual human rights report.
In response to Biden’s threat of economic sanctions, Ghana’s Minister-designate for Foreign Affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey said Ghana’s laws clearly criminalize the practice of homosexuality — and those laws are not about to change.
“Ghana is a sovereign country but as part of our foreign policy we engage countries all over the world; America is one of our strongest friends. But in this country we have laws. And our laws work and must work,” she said.
“So in spite of what somebody will say and in this case President Biden, the laws of Ghana criminalizes unlawful carnal knowledge and therefore the laws of Ghana definitely are supreme and that is what we all adhere to.”
So far, there has not been a word from Biden on the Chinese court ruling.
