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"Masturbation Leads To Homosexuality" And Other Things Chinese Kids Learn In Sex Ed Class

Despite China's booming economic and cultural development, the country is still still woefully behind when it comes to sex education: At a recent conference, HIV activist Humphrey Wou read from a popular textbook that warned that "masturbation will lead to mental disorders and homosexuality."

“Traditional values have come back in a big way over the past decade,” Wou tells The Nation. “The government is very old-fashioned and refuses to adapt to modern times. Students are reading Confucius in the classroom and then having unprotected sex at hourly lodging hotels just outside of the college gates.”

While homosexuality was officially removed from China's list of mental disorders in 2001, some 80% of the public still view it a psychological illness, and LGBT people have few legal protections.

Related: Social Media Campaign Attacks China's Cultural Assumption That "Gay Is A Choice"

Not coincidentally, there's been alarming increase in HIV among men who have sex with men—In 2006, they made up only 2.5% of new HIV cases in China. By 2013, that number rocketed to 20%.

Having lost his partner and many friends to the virus, Wou decided to take action.

He founded the AIDS Relief Fund for China in 2003, began a support group called Heart Talk and provides rapid HIV testing to gay men. More recently he started engaging young people with his Youth Decoding campaign, which focuses on prevention and dismantling the stigma around sex, especially gay sex.

“When it comes to sex-education, most people only consider three categories: anatomy, disease/infection, and condom use,” Wou said. “It made me think, if I were teaching a student how to drive, would I only open the hood, show them pictures of car wrecks, and teach them how to operate the pedals?”

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