Help Chinese trans woman who has been abducted

Please see information below for details of a Chinese transgender woman being forcibly and illegally kidnapped by her extremely transphobic parents.

At present the Chinese trans activists working to try to help Luo Keke are in financial difficulties and urgently require more funding. It would be very much appreciated if you could offer any donations you are able to give.

Luo Keke is a 21-year-old Chinese transgender female (mtf). While she was working in Shanghai earlier this autumn, she was forcibly taken back to a place in Linyi, Shandong Province in Mainland China by her transphobic parents, where her human rights was restricted and she was repeatedly beaten and subjected to other forms of domestic violence. Various efforts were made to rescue her and after a lot of hard work by the trans community and trans activists in China, she managed to get away from her abusive parents and escape to a new location in Shanghai.

However, not long afterwards her new location in Shanghai was still discovered by her parents through unknown means and they made many attempts to recapture her.

Luo Keke was handcuffed and subdued by about seven or eight unknown persons (who were hired by her parents and probably have links with the local crime sydicates) in Lingang, Shanghai, China during the morning of 21 November 2023 and taken away in an unknown vehicle with license plate number 鲁Q3922F (Lu Q3922F).

She is currently completely out of contact, whereabouts unknown. Her parents have extremely transphobic views and likely plan to send her to a "conversion therapy" centre. Many Chinese "conversion therapy" centres exist in the "gray areas" of the law and are extremely abusive both psychologically and physically. Many trans people who are subjected to intensive abuse in these places end up committing suicide or with severe psychological trauma even if they survive.

The police in Lingang, Shanghai claims that her parents "have the right" to bring her back home mandatorily and send her to "conversion therapy" if they don’t agree with her transition even though Luo Keke is an adult, and Chinese law technically allows and recognises gender transitions, and many official Chinese hospitals and medical facilities do offer gender affirming care.

Although the police in Shanghai eventually agreed to intervene into the kidnapping, it's already too late and Luo Keke's parents had already brought her out of Shanghai, outside the jurisdiction of the Shanghai police department. Currently we have no idea regarding the whereabouts of Luo Keke but the Chinese trans community and trans activists are taking all possible action to help her.

Other background information regarding this case:

Luo Keke's parents are local officials and have "guanxi" (connections with the local government and police office) which probably explains why the police initially refused to provide any help and simply dismissed it as a "family issue". This young woman is an adult and already has income to support herself independently in Shanghai. This is a serious violation of freedom of movement and the police’s inaction has made it worse. “Family issue” is one of the most common excuses for Chinese police to not do anything about domestic violence. It's still common in some cases for Chinese police to treat instances of domestic abuse as "family issues" & not do anything to stop it. It's a product of the patriarchal structures within China.

Nevertheless, despite police corruption being widespread in some areas of China, Luo Keke's parents' actions of violently kidnapping their transgender daughter are clearly and explicitly in violation of Chinese law.