Gay rights
activists in Hong Kong protest human rights training by
Christian group

Gay rights activists in Hong Kong said Tuesday they were staging demonstrations and a hunger strike to protest a government decision to let a conservative Christian group educate schoolteachers on human rights issues. "Choosing a group that is not only antigay but clearly anti-human rights, over experienced academics, to teach human rights is simply a joke," said gay rights activist Roddy Shaw. The Society of Truth and Light, a Christian group that has on several occasions spoken out against gay rights, was commissioned by the Education and Manpower Bureau to educate teachers in primary and secondary schools on human rights concepts. The group has led petitions against possible legislation outlawing discrimination against sexual minorities. It has described gays as "unhealthy and dangerous to society" in newspaper advertisements. The one-year course's contents include international human rights conventions and the general background of human rights in Hong Kong, bureau spokeswoman Jeanne Tam said. Ben Olmsted, a California activist, called the government decision "disgusting" and protested by staging a hunger strike outside the government headquarters. "I plan to do a minimum of 48 hours and a maximum of 72 hours," he said. "I'm well aware of the preachings of the Society for Truth and Light, and I think they are extremely offensive. They are ultraconservative and not representative of Hong Kong people at all." Education bureau spokeswoman Tam said it was the first time a nontertiary academic group was chosen to provide the human rights training to teachers. She added, however, that the selection was conducted fairly and openly. Choi Chi-sum of the Society of Truth and Light said in response to the attacks that gay activists are "too domineering." "They are taking their 'rights' too far, and any individuals who hold different views from them are persecuted. To equate gay rights and human rights is just wrong," Choi said. (AP)