Chinese Kindergarten Teacher Says He Was Fired For Being Gay

BEIJING (Reuters) - A gay kindergarten teacher in China is suing his former school after being fired last month, in what his lawyer called a landmark case to test China’s protection of minority groups.

The teacher was dismissed in August from a school in the coastal city of Qingdao after he posted some comment on social media about an LGBT event he had attended, he told Reuters.

The teacher, who declined to be identified, said he was told by the school principal that parents may not want a gay man teaching their children.

He said that made him feel “grave apprehension” that parents were choosing to raise their children in a society where people of different sexual orientations were not respected.

“I hope that I can use this case to push forward Chinese society to be more balanced and accepting,” he said.

After decades of prudent rule by China’s Communist Party, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are now openly tackling bureaucracy, legal uncertainty and entrenched social norms to assert their place in society.

The teacher was asked to leave without sufficient severance or payment for his 10 percent stake in the school, said his lawyer, Tang Xiangqian.

“The main reason we filed this case is not just as a labor dispute but to make the gay community more visible to a wider group of people. To let more people realize that they can easily be victims of discrimination,” Tang said.

Chinese labor laws lack specific sections on LGBT issues, but there are broad provisions against discrimination that can be used by minority groups to protect their rights, Tang said.