Born in January 1974, Zhou Dan is a practising lawyer based in Shanghai, China. As one of the few Chinese gay people who have ever come out to the local, national and international media, he is a pioneering advocate for full and equal recognition of rights related to sexual orientation and gender identity in China. Over the past decade, he has been working towards these goals through consulting services, public education, public policy and legal advocacy, as well as training sessions and conferences.
In addition, he published, in 2009, Pleasure and Discipline: Jurisprudential Imagination of Same-sex Desire in Chinese Modernity, the ground-breaking monograph in the Chinese language on the dynamics of same-sex desire, law, and modernity in China. Meanwhile, he speaks on LGBT rights issues at workshops, seminars and symposia in China, the United States, Germany, and other countries.
