IV. Conclusions and Recommendations
In China, transgender people do not necessarily face outright legal penalties, but the
absence of non-discrimination laws and lack of enforcement of overarching policies on
non-discriminatory access to healthcare and HIV related services, means they are left
without effective protection. Transgender people face varying degrees of discrimination
in their daily lives, including at school, in the workplace, in housing and in obtaining
medical treatment. Transgender sex workers are further oppressed by the police and,
due to social and other factors are forced to engage in high risk activities that put them
at increased risk of HIV and STD infection.
China lacks a legal and policy framework
“The community of female
to address these issues, within a context
presenting sex workers is
of an ultra-conservative philosophy of “not
very complex and includes
encouraging, not discouraging and not
MSM, transgender people
promoting.”256 This attitude is preventing any
and transsexuals. Their
progress on safeguarding the interests of
vulnerabilities to HIV and
China’s minorities. In a recent resolution passed
their varied health needs
by the UN Human Rights Council regarding
need to be carefully
“Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender
assessed, strategically
Identity” in September 2014, China again cast an
targeted and addressed.”
abstaining vote.257
China has also paid little attention to transgender people in its HIV-prevention work and
the 12th Five Year Action Plan for China’s HIV/AIDS Control, Prevention and Treatment
strategy does not include a program of work for the transgender community. Although
some provinces and cities have become conscious of the problem of HIV risks in
the transgender community, they have not yet taken action. A study in Chengdu in
2010 found that the transgender community there was comprised mainly of crossdressing performers, stre