September, 2002

Homosexuals Deserve the Same Equal Rights as Heterosexuals

Rose Wu

As a British colony, Hong Kong inherited the British common law system that was deeply influenced by 19th century Victorian prejudices against male homosexuality. As a result, the act of sodomy was criminalised, and the death penalty for homosexuality was instituted. In 1865, this was reduced to life in prison, but homosexuality was not overturned as a criminal act until 1991 when Hong Kong's Legislative Council (Legco) finally abolished it after almost 10 years of struggle and resistance.

The major factor which contributed to this decision was that one-third of the Legco members in 1991 were directly elected by the people as their representatives for the first time after almost 150 years of colonisation. Furthermore, because of the pressure of many political and social movements, these elected members were more concerned about human rights as the community approached the challenge of 1997 and the return of Hong Kong to China.

In 1993, legislator Anna Wu urged the Hong Kong government to introduce an Equal Opportunities Bill which would cover many types of discrimination based on gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, race, political and religious beliefs, union membership and previous criminal record. The government delayed the process for a year until the end of 1994 when it finally introduced two bills. On June 28, 1995, the Sex Discrimination Ordinance was enacted prohibiting discrimination based on gender, marital status and pregnancy as well as sexual harassment, a law that was followed one month later by passage of the Disability Discrimination Ordinance. In addition, the legislation created an Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) in 1996 to oversee enforcement of these new anti-discrimination laws. However, the Church in Hong Kong was exempted from these ordinances based on religious freedom.

Unfortunately, the government was successful in lobbying the legislature in 1995 to defeat additional legislative proposals that would have prohibited discrimination on other grounds—sexual orientation, age and race. The major opposing forces against legislation to protect people with different sexual orientations were business, religious and pro-Chinese government groups. Instead of introducing equal opportunity legislation, the government established a special fund to promote equal opportunities for people with different sexual orientations. In 1996, the government launched a survey to gauge public opinion on whether the government should introduce a bill on discrimination based on sexual orientation. Overwhelmingly, 85 percent of those interviewed indicated that they would object.

Six years later the Social Policies Research Institute of Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Tongzhi Community Coalition jointly conducted a telephone survey about sexual orientation in May 2002 in which they collected 521 responses.

From their findings, although 47.9 percent of the people interviewed felt that homosexuality is a psychological disorder which needs therapy and close to 70 percent thought that it is easier for homosexuals to be infected with AIDS, only 27.7 percent agreed that homosexuals are more promiscuous than heterosexuals. Surprisingly, the survey found that close to 60 percent of Christians, including both Catholics and Protestants, do not agree that homosexuality is a psychological disorder and that 77.8 percent of Christians do not agree that homosexuals are incapable of becoming teachers. However, Christians tend to be more conservative when it comes to their acceptance of homosexuals as church ministers.

Moreover, more than 90 percent of those interviewed agreed that homosexuals should have equal rights in terms of work, education, choice of spouse and religious beliefs, and close to 80 percent agreed that both homosexual and heterosexual partners should have equal rights in terms of forming a family. In addition, 73.6 percent agreed that companies should extend the same benefits as those of a heterosexual spouse to homosexual partners, such as housing, medical insurance, etc. Finally, 61 percent supported their equal rights in terms of adopting children, and more than 80 percent agreed that they should have equal rights in terms of inheriting each other's properties as a spouse. As for Christians, more than 70 percent agreed that homosexuals should have the right to form a family, and close to 70 percent said they should have the right to adopt children.

Compared with the government's survey in 1996, the recent survey indicated that the public's attitude toward homoseuxals is much more open, and their position on granting homosexuals equal rights in employment, education, housing and welfare as well as forming a family and adopting children is very positive and sympathetic. Based on the new findings, the organisations that conducted the survey urge the government to enact the Sexual Orientation Discrimination Ordinance as soon as possible and to lower the official male homosexual adult age of consent from 21 to 16, the same as heterosexual male adults. Moreover, the government should introduce same-sex partnership registration so that homosexual couples can enjoy the same equal rights as heterosexual married couples. Lastly, they advocate that the government recognise overseas same-sex marriages as 40 countries now have legalised same-sex marriage.

In addition to advocating equal opportunity legislation for homosexuals, the two organisations also urge the government to play a more active role in promoting equal opportunity education related to homosexuality, including transforming the school curriculum by introducing an inclusive approach to family, marriage and sexual orientation and, even more importantly, to change the wrong concept of blaming homosexuality as a chief cause of infecting people with AIDS.

As a Christian community, we are constantly called to participate in the ministry of loving our neighbours as ourselves. This is a ministry that moves us toward healing divisions, toward overcoming brokenness and ultimately toward respecting others as equals because they too are reflections of God's image. To embrace homosexuals as equal members of our human community and Christian family is a hospitable act that the Church can do and should do. The Christian norm to love one's neighbour as oneself demands us to move beyond the narrow view of traditionally accepted sexual patterns and to seek an inclusive ethics of right relations.