by Cui Le Cui Le is a Ph.D. student at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Education and Social Work.

Since 2018, I’ve interviewed 40 gay men who either currently teach or have previously taught at Chinese colleges and universities. My aim was to discover what challenges they face as teachers and researchers and to find out how they cope with Chinese academia’s often hostile stance toward sexual minorities.

Unsurprisingly, many of my interviewees told me their sexual identities were a source of stress. School leaders often take an ambivalent view of LGBT staff, and those who choose to come out publicly must balance their desire to be accepted for who they are with the risk of discrimination from colleagues, bosses, and even students.

But not everyone chooses to strike this delicate balance. Some gay professors instead embrace their minority status and use it as a source of motivation. By outperforming their heterosexual colleagues, they seek to force their schools to recognize and accept their identities. While this approach can’t address the roots of homophobia in Chinese academia, some gay scholars are willing to bet — often successfully — that even prejudiced deans won’t dare touch their star faculty, regardless of their sexual orientation.

Song is a 35-year-old lecturer at a university in southwestern China. He has never married and doesn’t have any plans to come out at work. However, he also doesn’t care what his colleagues say about him behind his back, as his research is a crucial source of grant money for the school.

“If they want to speculate, then let them,” he said. “I bring in so much money to the school every year that they wouldn’t think about firing me.” Read more via Sixth Tone