The one-child policy, eldercare, and LGB Chinese: A social policy explanation for family pressure.

Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people in China consistently report family pressure as the greatest challenge they face in their daily lives. This problem has been primarily explained by highlighting sociocultural factors. While such explanations are important to understanding family pressure, they do not easily lead to actionable policy interventions to relieve it. This article suggests a new way of looking at family pressure by positing a social policy explanation. In particular, it reveals how both the one-child policy and eldercare reforms have strong heteronormative biases which negatively and disproportionately affect LGB people and explores social policy interventions that may serve to help address them. Beyond the China case, the article seeks to open up new avenues for research into how sexuality should be better accounted for in analyses of social policies and considered in broader discussions on defamilization and welfare state reform.