Perspectives on same-sex sexualities and self-harm amongst service providers and teachers in Hong Kong

Abstract

This study investigates the perspectives of service providers working with Chinese lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) young people in Hong Kong secondary schools and maps the relationships between same-sex sexualities, religion, education and self-harm. Sixteen service providers, including secondary school teachers, social workers based on and off school sites, and lesbian/transgender activists working in non-governmental organisations serving the LGB and transgender communities, participated in in-depth qualitative interviews. In addition, extensive participant observation was carried out. A grounded theory approach was adopted to code the data, as themes emerged with each successive round of coding. Study findings highlight four main themes: barriers to discussing sexuality at school, the effects of personal disinclination and religion, lesbian and gay youth being perceived as especially susceptible to self-harm, and the similarities in professionals' perceptions of self-harmers and LGB youth. Findings suggest that conservative religious beliefs at both the personal and structural levels act as deterrents to providing counselling and mental health services supportive of LGB youth in Hong Kong.

Keywords::

• sexual minority youth
• service providers
• attitudes
• religion
• Hong Kong

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the respondents who participated in this research and to the anonymous reviewers of this paper. I would also like to thank Cynthia Lam and Eva Li for their assistance in data collection, and Karen Joe Laidler for her feedback.

Notes

^1.Tongzhi is a politicised term commonly used in Hong Kong to signify a person with same-sex desires (Kong 2011).

^2. The Hong Kong Education Bureau website contains a list of sex education resources in the section entitled Moral, Civic and National Education in Curriculum Development: http://www.edb.gov.hk/en/curriculum-development/4-key-tasks/moral-civic/sex-education.html#2. The list does not mention sexual orientation as an issue for discussion, but LGB issues are included in the examples for discussion.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this project was provided by the University of Hong Kong Seed Funding Programme for Basic Research by New Staff.