No explicit anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people are present in its legal system, nor do hate crime laws cover sexual orientation or gender identity.

However, the studies note that public discourse in China appears uninterested and, at best, ambivalent about homosexuality, and traditional sentiments on family obligations and discrimination remains a significant factor deterring same-sex attracted people from coming out.

Poet Qu Yuan is said to have expressed his love for the ruling monarch, King Huai of Chu, through several of this works, most notably "Li Sao" and "Longing for Beauty".

A historian in the Eastern Han dynasty, Ying Shao, made observations regarding several Imperial Palace women forming homosexual attachments with one another, in a relationship titled duishi (對食, a term interpreted to refer to reciprocal cunnilingus), in which the two acted as a married couple.

There was a stereotype in the late Ming dynasty that the province of Fujian was the only place where homosexuality was prominent,[20] but Xie Zhaozhe (1567–1624) wrote that "from Jiangnan and Zhejiang to Beijing and Shanxi, there is none that does not know of this fondness.

[30] In 2021, a court in Jiangsu upheld a ruling that a description of homosexuality as a mental disorder in a 2013 edition of a university textbook was a result of "perceptual differences", rather than factual error.

[36][37] On 5 January 2016, a court in Changsha, southern Hunan Province, agreed to hear a lawsuit filed in December 2015 against the Bureau of Civil Affairs of Furong District.

[41] In October 2017, the National People's Congress amended Chinese law so that "all adults of full capacity are given the liberty of appointing their own guardians by mutual agreement."

[42] On 12 April 2021, the Shenyang Intermediate People's Court in Liaoning province ruled that a 79-year-old woman could not sue her female partner of 50 years, whom she accused of stealing 294,000 yuan from her bank account, because their relationship is not recognized as a marriage in China.

[48] In 2018, a gay kindergarten teacher from Qingdao sued his former school after he was dismissed from his job, following a social media post he had made about attending an LGBT event.

The "landmark" recommendations, from Argentina, Chile, France, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands and Sweden, urge China to pass an anti-discrimination law covering sexual orientation and enact anti-violence and social security measures.

[50][51][52] The Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance 1991 was utilized to strike down discrimination in the age of consent in the case of Leung TC William Roy v. Secretary for Justice (2005).

[56][57] Some criteria still remain, including the requirements of being unmarried, having notified direct family members, and having a persistent desire for gender reassignment for at least five years, without relapses or interruptions.

[58] In 2009, the Chinese Government made it illegal for minors to change their officially-listed gender, stating that sex reassignment surgery, available to only those over the age of twenty, was required in order to apply for a revision of their identification card and residence registration.

[62] In 2020, a court in Beijing said that a transgender woman was covered by anti-discrimination protections pertaining to sex, and her employer was obligated to treat her as female, because she had legally transitioned.

It is also difficult to change the gender information of educational attainments and academic degrees in China, even after sex reassignment surgery, which results in discrimination against well-educated trans women.

[88] The lawsuit concluded in December 2015 with a finding by the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court that the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) had not requested that hosting sites pull the documentary.

On April 25, 2016, Qiubai sued the Ministry of Education for inaction based on the relevant provisions of the Chinese Administrative Litigation Law, but the court refused to file the case.

[109] On March 2, 2017, the High Court of Beijing made a final judgment, announcing that Qiubai lost the case and rejected her appeal based on the similar ground as the first instance.

This final judgement means that for a long time to come, in the various textbooks used by Chinese university students, homosexuality may continue to be described as "disease", "mental disorder" and "abnormality".

[7][120] Po-Han Lee, a scholar at the University of Sussex, claims that the regulation of LGBT activism in Asia has increased in recent years as governments attempt to dissociate with the “individualistic” West.

[123] Scholars in queer studies argue that the history of colonialism has led to a "desexualization" of LGBT activism in Asia, where activist groups adopt a more "respectable" or "pragmatic" approach.

[129] Dr Shana Yi, a professor at the University of Toronto, explains that queer studies in Asia must be “decolonized” and scholars must recognize the “heterogeneity and plurality of global coloniality”.

[129][132] As for the reason for the lack of LGBT acceptance, Confucian philosophy and a collectivist cultural mindset have long shaped conservative views on sexuality and gender roles in China.

These measures target organizations and movements seen as potential risks to traditional values and social harmony, particularly those receiving foreign funding, including some LGBT groups.

[134][135] Sociologist Cui Le argues that institutional homophobia in China is deeply rooted in the legal, educational, and social systems,[136] creating an environment where LGBT people face discrimination and marginalization.

Sue Lin-Wong, the Economist’s former China correspondent has stated that Xi Jinping's political ideology was strongly influenced by the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the events of the Arab Spring.

Scholars also argue that mass mobilization is likely to face suppression when demonstrations are large, organized, formal, political, and carried out by minority groups, as they are seen to be more disruptive to social stability.

[83] Echoing this idea, LGBT activists claim that during governmental interrogations, there is an emphasis placed on the threat that community organization poses to national security, rather than its immorality.

[143] Therefore, LGBT activist groups tend to work on issues that are non-politically charged and serve the wider community, such as HIV and AIDS prevention, to receive the most funding and “political space”.