LGBT Rights in Hong Kong - Discrimination Protections

Discrimination Protections

The Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance 1991 prohibits discrimination on a variety of grounds, including "other status". In the case of Leung TC William Roy v. Secretary for Justice (2005), this has been interpreted to include sexual orientation. However, the Bill of Rights only applies to government sponsored discrimination and not the private sector. Since the 1990s LGBT rights groups have lobbied the Legislative Council to enact civil rights laws that include sexual orientation without success.

In 1993, former legislator Anna Wu proposed an Equal Opportunities Bill through a private member's bill to outlaw discrimination on a variety of grounds, including sex, disability, age, race, and sexuality. Her effort didn't yield any result until 1995 when equal opportunities law was enacted. However, sexuality was not included in the passage of the bill.

Currently, there is no law against discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation in Hong Kong.

Political opposition tends to come from social conservatives, often with evangelical Christian ties, who view homosexuality and cross-dressing as signs of immorality. For example, after the court ruled against the unequal age of consent, Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang, a devote Catholic, publicly opposed the court's decision and fought for an appeal until 2006. Otherwise most political parties and individual politicians tend to avoid making public statements in favor of LGBT rights, although this has slowly begun to change.

In 2010, Legislator Cyd Ho Sau-lan, and former legislators Dr Fernando Cheung, Reverend Fung Chi Wood and Dr Lo Wing-lok participated in public demonstration against homophobia.

Of note, civil servant are expected to provide service to members of the public impartially, irrespective of their clients sexuality. Failure to perform any duty/duties, that are required by the laws in Hong Kong can be construe as an act of misconduct in public office. Any person convicted of the aforementioned crime could face a maximum jail term of seven years. Currently, The Independent Commission Against Corruption is the only government agency which have the powers conferred by, the "Independent Commission Against Corruption Ordinance" to investigate and or to charge anyone for their alleged misconduct behavior in public office.

Although there are no specific laws targeting hate crimes directed against the LGBT community, The Hong Kong Police force can still charge anyone found intimidating any person irrespective of the victim's sexuality, under section 24 of the Crimes Ordinance.