{"id":131869,"date":"2015-01-28T16:57:27","date_gmt":"2015-01-28T05:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/starobserver.com.au\/?p=131869"},"modified":"2015-01-28T16:57:27","modified_gmt":"2015-01-28T05:57:27","slug":"chinese-court-sees-first-ever-unfair-dismissal-lawsuit-for-being-gay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starobserver.com.au\/news\/international-news-news\/chinese-court-sees-first-ever-unfair-dismissal-lawsuit-for-being-gay\/131869","title":{"rendered":"Chinese court sees first-ever unfair dismissal lawsuit for being gay"},"content":{"rendered":"
WHAT is believed to be the\u00a0first-ever sexual orientation discrimination lawsuit is currently taking place in a Chinese court.<\/p>\n
A Chinese man, under the pseudonym Mu Yi, is seeking both an apology and 50,000 yuan (A$10,174) in compensation after allegedly being fired from his job as a designer after it was revealed he was gay in an\u00a0online video.<\/p>\n
The video, filmed by the police in a street in Shenzhen, caught Mu and another gay man having an argument.<\/p>\n
The plaintiff’s lawyer Liu Xiaohu said they were\u00a0“very optimistic,” believing that the case “will definitely have an impact” on the view of gay rights in China, according to <\/a>The Guardian<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n China only decriminalised homosexuality in 1997, and continued to list it as a mental illness for four more years.<\/p>\n Mu’s former employer maintains that his dismissal has no link to his coming out, stating that his firing was due to “poor service attitude and improper attire”, according to Guangzhou-based Yangcheng Evening ½ñÈÕ³Ô¹Ï<\/em>.<\/p>\n “During that time (when the video went viral) I was a total wreck. I couldn’t go out. I couldn’t answer the phone. I even lost my job,” Mu told reporters.<\/p>\n “I was the victim to begin with, it doesn’t make any sense for my company [to punish me more].<\/p>\n “Worst thing of all, when I was on break, the company lowered my salary substantially, which is clearly discrimination against me. I can find another job but the discrimination is unbearable. That’s why I decided to file the lawsuit.”<\/p>\n A verdict on the lawsuit is expected within the next three months.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WHAT is believed to be the\u00a0first-ever sexual orientation discrimination lawsuit is currently taking place in a Chinese court. A Chinese man, under the pseudonym Mu Yi, is seeking both an …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":233,"featured_media":131873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11208],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n