Rural-urban sexual divide in China:quantitative evidence on comparing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people’s lives in rural and urban China

Extensive literature has documented rural-urban disparities in China. However, rural-urban divide in the lives of sexual and gender minorities has been lesser studied. This article compares lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people’s lives in different parts of China, by analyzing a quantitative survey of 16,976 LGBTI people, the largest dataset of its kind to date in China. It was found that LGBTI people living in cities were more likely to display non-conforming gender expression and less likely to endorse internalized homophobia than those living in villages. They were also more likely to indicate that their family members, coworkers, supervisors, and health care service providers showed accepting attitudes and were less likely to report having received negative treatment. A significantly lower proportion of LGBTI people living in Northeast and Northwest China indicated that their family members, supervisors, and coworkers showed accepting attitudes as compared with those in other regions. They were the least likely to come out in the workplace and health care settings. This article contributes to the rural-urban divide debate in China by adding the understudied aspect of sexual and gender minorities’ lives to the research literature through providing novel empirical evidence from China.