A homophobic article, published Thursday on Yangzhou Evening News, an affiliate to Yangzhou Daily, which is a local government newspaper, has enraged LGBT activists by claiming that homosexuality is preventable.

The article, titled "How parents should prevent teenagers from becoming homosexual,” claimed that most people are not born gay and that a homosexual child  "will be a destructive blow for the family.”

It encourages parents to pay attention to the sexual psychological development of their children.

According to online posts, the article was written by Bu Ru, a psychiatrist at the Wutaishan hospital of Yangzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province.

"The article is filled with wrong information on sexual education," Ah Qiang, founder of PFLAG (Parents, Friends and Families of Lesbians and Gays) China, told the Global Times.

"Such so-called authoritative opinions may bring more pressure and fear on families and children who don't know the reality of sexuality," Ah Qiang noted.

Recently Chinese society has been progressing towards accepting same-sex relations and marriages. Gay marriages are not recognised by Chinese law even though homosexuality was decriminalised in 1997.

However, there are a number of online ‘professionals’ offering advice on curing or preventing homosexuality.

Last year, a British TV channel reported on doctors prescribing drugs and electric shocks to gay men and lesbians in Beijing, despite homosexuality's declassification as a mental illness in 2001.