【英语生活】香港同性恋群体在工作场所仍受歧视

Hong Kong's LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community may have received a boost from local pop star Anthony Wong's very public coming-out last month, and there may have been visible improvements in public attitude in recent years--the city has hosted a number of Pride parades since 2008--but a new survey shows that hostility continues in the workplace.

Conducted by Hong Kong nonprofit Community Business, the survey--the first major one on attitudes toward LGBT individuals since 2005--interviewed 1,002 randomly chosen working people in Hong Kong as well as 626 working people who identified themselves as members of the LGBT community.

Of the former, 50% described themselves as 'accepting' of LGBT individuals, an advance on the results of the 2005 survey, conducted by Hong Kong's government (pdf), in which 39% of 2,000 people interviewed said homosexuality 'contradicts the morals of the community.' An even bigger change was that just 3% in the latest survey said they believed gays are not 'psychologically normal,' compared with 42% in 2005.

Still 25% of workers said they were 'not accepting,' and 53% of the LGBT employees said they felt exhausted by 'having to pretend to be someone they are not,' while 26% said they had stayed home from work because the work environment was not accepting. The LGBT respondents gave their employers an average score of just 2.68 out of 10 in for creating an inclusive workplace.

International companies did better than average, scoring 4.32, but the government did far worse, with a paltry 1.47.

Tellingly, there is no neutral Cantonese word for 'transgender' that has entered common parlance. According to the survey, most people still use yan yiu--literally, 'human monster.'

Richard Seeley, a managing director at survey sponsor Barclays, said in order to hire young people his company has to be aware of their values, which include diversity and inclusion. The stereotype of bankers as Gordon Gekko-types from the film 'Wall Street' no longer applies.

'Investment banks have to hire the best and the brightest, and they're not all alpha males,' he said.

There are currently no laws protecting LGBT employees in Hong Kong against discrimination at the workplace.

'It's going to be a long process for legislation,' said Amanda Yik of Community Business, as 'there is no real consensus in society' on whether to legislate and there is a lack of advocacy groups in Hong Kong lobbying for LGBT rights.

But here's something for employers to keep in mind: Almost half of LGBT workers in the survey said they are more efficient at work if they do not have to hide their sexual orientation.

香港的LGBT群体（指女同性恋、男同性恋、双性恋以及跨性别者）可能受到了香港流行歌手黄耀明(Anthony Wong)上个月公开出柜的鼓舞，近年来公众对这一群体的态度可能也有明显改善（自2008年以来香港举行过多次同性恋游行），但新近一项调查显示，在工作场所，针对这一群体的敌意仍然存在。

Associated Press2011年11月12日在香港，人们举行集会呼吁尊重同性恋、双性恋和跨性别者的权利。由香港非营利性组织Community Business进行的这项调查访问了1,002名随机选取的香港职场人士以及626名自称属于LGBT群体的职场人士。这是2005年以来香港首个有关公众对LGBT群体态度的调查。

在第一类受访群体中，50%的人称自己接受LGBT群体，和2005年香港政府一项类似调查显示的结果相比，这一比例有所提升。2005年的调查共访问了2,000名对象，其中39%的人说同性恋有违社会道德。更大的变化在于，此次调查中只有3%的受访者说他们认为同性恋者心理不正常，而2005年这一比例高达42%。

尽管如此，第一类受访群体中仍有25%的人说他们不接受LGBT群体，而53%的LGBT员工说，他们对不得不装扮成一个同自己性取向不同的人感到精疲力尽。26%的人说，他们只好辞职回家，因为工作环境不接受他们。在评价雇主对创造一个包容性的工作环境所付出的努力时，LGBT受访者给雇主打出的平均分只有2.68分(满分10分)。

跨国企业的表现高于平均水平，得分为4.32。但政府部门的表现就差远了，得分仅有1.47。

值得注意的是，在粤语中，“跨性别者”还没有一个普遍接受的不带感情色彩的说法。从此次调查来看，大多数人还是将其称作“人妖”。

此次调查的赞助商巴克莱(Barclays)的董事总经理西利(Richard Seeley)说，在雇用年轻人之前他所在的公司必须了解他们的价值观，其中包括多样性和包容性。电影《华尔街》(Wall Street)中盖寇(Gordon Gekko)那样的老派投资银行家已经不合时宜了。

西利说，投资银行雇佣的是最优秀且最聪明的人，他们未必要是那种传统意义上的精英男性。

香港目前没有法律保护LGBT员工在工作场合不受歧视。

Community Business的Amanda Yik说，立法保护这一群体将是一个漫长的过程，因为在是否要立法这一问题上没有达成真正的社会共识，香港也缺乏维权组织为LGBT的权利进行游说。

雇主最好记住一点：调查中，接近一半的受访LGBT员工说，如果他们不需要刻意隐藏自己的性取向，他们的工作效率会更高。