Fridae

A gay man, identified as Yu, has won compensation and apology from a mental hospital in Henan Province, China, for forcing him to undergo gay conversion treatment.

The court in Zhumadian ordered a city mental hospital to publish a public apology in local newspapers and pay the 38-year-old man 5,000 yuan ($735) in compensation, according to a copy of the June 26 judgment seen by The Associated Press.

He had been forcibly admitted to the institution in 2015 by his wife and relatives and diagnosed with "sexual preference disorder," court documents show.

He was forced to take medicine and receive injections before finally walking free after 19 days

The court ruled that forcing Yu into a mental institution if he did not pose a danger to himself or others amounted to "infringing on the plaintiff's right to individual freedom,” but did not weigh in on the practice of gay conversion therapy in general.

In 2014 gay rights activist Peng Yanhui went into a private conversion therapy clinic in Beijing to investigate the electroshock treatments it was advertising.

He later sued the hospital over the suffering he went through and won $500. Advertisements for the service were ordered to be removed from the internet.

"It's time for China to enact laws to prohibit forced gay conversion therapy," he told AP after the Zhumadian ruling, which he said confirmed that forced treatments were illegal.