Activist John Shen is filmed making enquiries at Chinese hospitals about treatment for homosexuality. An undercover ‘patient’ is subjected to gay electric shock therapy inside a Chinese hospital. Leading psychotherapist Johnny Li said ‘the damage can be long-term’
These are images of young Chinese men with electrodes placed near their genitals and on their head before being subjected to huge doses of electric voltage to try and rid them of their homosexuality.
John Chen |
‘It’s a small electric rod, when you have these urges, you shock yourself with the rod, then you know you should avoid these urges,’ a psychiatrist tells Mr Shen.
‘Now what I want to make you to feel is scared,’ the clinician tells him as she sends the charge through his body.’
Another ‘patient’ went ahead with the treatment at the Huashan Hospital to secretly recorded the process.
John Chen and reporter Shaunagh Connaire |
‘When these urges arise, you can take a cold shower or go jogging to release the excess hormones,” a psychiatrist suggested to him before offering the electric shock treatment.
‘I think aversion therapy can hurt anyone, especially gay people,” psychotherapist Johnny Li said.
‘Aversion therapy reinforces their lack of self-identity and their feelings of rejection, the damage can be long-term or even last a lifetime.’
Activist John Chen breaks down as the Dateline crew leaves the hospital, revealing that he can be jailed if he makes complains about the gay shock treatment to authorities.