Clinic in Chongqing ordered to pay compensation after it told man it could treat his homosexuality with electric shocks

A Beijing court has ruled in favour of a gay man in a case against a “gay-straight conversion” clinic, an unprecedented legal judgment in a country where most people consider homosexuality deeply taboo.

Yang Teng, 30, brought the case against the Xinyu Piaoxiang clinic in the south-western city of Chongqing, which allegedly told him it could “cure” him of his homosexuality through a series of treatments involving hypnosis and electric shocks.

The court ruled that such treatments were illegal, and demanded that the clinic give Yang 3,500 yuan (£359) in compensation and post an apology to its website.

“It’s very good news for us,” Yang told the Guardian. “The court ruling will make a huge difference.”

Although China has become more accepting of homosexuality in recent years, many families, institutions and even educational textbooks still treat it as a problem that needs to be fixed. Homosexuality was legalised in China in 1997 and removed from a list of mental illnesses in 2001, but same-sex marriages and domestic partnerships remain forbidden.

For many Chinese gay people, the greatest barriers to acceptance are social rather than political. Because of the one-child policy, Chinese parents often place enormous pressure on their children to marry and raise families. Only 21% of Chinese people say society should accept homosexuality, according to a 2013 survey by the Pew Research Centre, up from 17% in 2007. Many gay Chinese people report being discriminated against at work, passed over for promotions or fired without justifiable cause.

Yang proactively sought out the treatments in February after his parents pressured him to start a family. He also attempted to sue the search engine Baidu for advertising the clinic, but the judge rejected that case.

Gay-straight conversion clinics are widespread in China, the US and Europe despite warnings by medical experts that the procedures are not backed up by any scientific evidence and are likely do more harm than good.

“We want to convey the court ruling to more Chinese parents so that they can understand that homosexuality is not an illness and does not need to be treated,” Yang said. “We hope to save other homosexual people from a lot of pain.”