University withheld diplomas over viral marriage proposal
An international LGBT group has submitted a petition asking a Guangdong-based university to apologize to a Guangzhou lesbian student couple for not issuing them diplomas as punishment for their highly publicized marriage proposal.
The LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) group All Out sent signatures collected from more than 75,000 people in more than 30 countries to Guangdong University of Foreign Studies on Thursday, requesting that the university apologize to the two students.
"I call on you [the university] to apologize publicly to the two students and their families and to take comprehensive measures to prevent discrimination and homophobic harassment on campus," All Out said on its official website.
"The university received the signatures and said they will look at it," a student who participated in organizing the petition and asked for anonymity told the Global Times on Thursday, adding that he hopes the university can foster more communication with LGBT students instead of discriminating against them.
The university refused to give the lesbian couple diplomas because their public proposal in June had "violated certain regulations," one of the women, surnamed Ouyang, confirmed with the Global Times.
Ouyang said that although the two have now received their diplomas, the mental and emotional harm caused by the university's actions cannot be erased, and the university has not given any apology as requested.
According to comments written by Ouyang's partner Wang Xiaoyu on All Out's website, officials with the Communist Party of China's on-campus organization told Wang she would face punishment after photos of their proposal went viral online.
Wang said Party officials told her and Ouyang to "keep our homosexuality to ourselves" and even had police "break into" her apartment to "collect personal notes as 'evidence.'"
The university could not be reached for comment as of press time.
Peng Yanhui, a member of a Guangzhou-based NGO that helped organize the petition, told the Global Times on Thursday that his group suggested that the university offer lessons to educate its faculty about the harm caused by homophobia.
According to a survey conducted by Pan Suiming, a well-known sexologist from Renmin University of China, 11.4 percent of college students in the country display homosexual tendencies.
Yet according to a 2012 Aibai Center poll of 421 students, most of whom identified themselves as gay, 77 percent said they had been subjected to bullying on campus because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
