Li Yinhe

In 2010 and 2011, Li pointed out on blog that three criminal laws are outdated - the laws have not adapted to the drastically change of public opinion. Li argued that the force of these laws is waning as there are fewer and fewer people being punished for these offenses and the punishments are becoming less severe. Li called on the legislators to legalize pornography, to abolish the group licentiousness law(which provides up to five years in prison for consenting adults who have sex with more than one other person) and to decriminalize prostitution.

She was a keynote speaker at the 2006 International Conference on LGBT Human Rights in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Starting from 2002, Li kept asking members of National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) to submit her proposal.

In 2001, Li have asked a deputy to National People's Congress (NPC) to submit her proposal. But in the end the deputy wasn't able to submit the proposal in that a proposal concerning amendment to laws needs signatures from 30 other deputies to be accepted and she couldn't find that many people who would put their names to the document.

In 2000, Li proposed adding gay marriage to the law when the National People's Congress prepared to revise the marriage law and sought suggestions from sociologists and legal experts. Li's argument was dismissed and a law expert said 'China doesn't need to take the lead in this matter.'

Li was married to Wang Xiaobo, a well-known Chinese novelist until his death in 1997. Li went to the US alone in 1982, but Wang join her in 1984 on a scholarship in East Asia Studies. Li announced in December 2014 that she had been in a long-term relationship with a transgender man, Zhang Hongxia (b. 1965), for 15 years.

After graduating from Shanxi University, Li worked as an editor at Guangming Daily. One year later, in 1978, Li was assigned a research position at the State Council Research Office, where she gained national fame by publishing the article "To substantially promote democracy, to substantially promote the rule of law" with Lin Chunhe. In 1979, Li joined the newly-founded Institute of Marxism–Leninism at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences(CASS), where she researched on marriage and the family. After obtaining the doctorate degree from the University of Pittsburgh and returning to China, Li worked as a post-doctoral fellow under the acclaimed sociologist Fei Xiaotong, then an instructor at Peking University. In 1992 she joined the Institute of Sociology at CASS as a researcher, and later the director of the Research Office of Family and Sexuality. She worked at CASS until retired in 2012.

Li attended Shanxi University from 1974 to 1977 studying history. From 1982 to 1998, she lived in the United States of America and obtained a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Pittsburgh.

Li Yinhe (simplified Chinese: 李银河 ; traditional Chinese: 李銀河 ; pinyin: Lǐ Yínhé ; born February 4, 1952) is a sociologist, sexologist, and activist for LGBT rights in the People's Republic of China. She was married to the late writer Wang Xiaobo. Her main academic interests have been sexual norms in contemporary China, homosexuality, diverse sexual behaviors including sadomasochism, and women's studies.

Li Yinhe was born in Beijing in 1952 as Li Sanfan. Her name was changed to Li Yinhe at the age of seven. Her father, Chen Erdong was the director of the department of theories at People's daily, and her mother was an editor. Li has two elder sisters and one elder brother. Li and her brother adopted matrilineal surname as a realization of her parents' gender equality idea.