LEGITIMATING TRANSPHOBIA

Transgender persons are strangers to the law; or put more accurately, the legal imagination is so deeply entrenched in normative gender binarism as to effectively render transsexuals a ‘freakish’ anomaly to law. This essay attempts to offer a reflection on transgenderism, law and sexual crime from a human rights and criminal law perspective. It focuses on one of the most violent types of institution in society – the prison – and asks: what are the legal imagination and practice surrounding transgender prisoners as they are linked to social and cultural transphobia? What ‘human’ rights can be practiced for a dehumanized class? It first surveys the legal predicament of transgender prisoners in the US prison system in relation to Eighth Amendment rights provided by the US Constitution. The US situation has seen cases that have importantly shed light on other jurisdictions when engaging with the combined questions of prisoners’ rights and transgender rights together. The analysis is then taken to the context of Hong Kong prisons in a modest application. In contrast to some other Asian contexts (such as Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia), critical cultural studies of transgenderism are non-existent in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, human rights studies of the same have only emerged through the work of legal scholar Robyn Emerton. It is hoped that a rights-based approach will emerge in Hong Kong for the protection of transgender inmates from sexual violence in local correctional facilities.     

Counselors’ and Counseling Students’ Attitudes toward Transgender Persons

Issues related to persons who are transgender have gained large interest in recent years, but discrimination and differential health outcomes for persons who are transgender continue. This article reviewed the 14 existing studies on attitudes toward persons who are transgender, none dealing exclusively with counselors and/or counselors in training. This study involved investigation of those attitudes with a sample of 95 counselors and counselors in training. Findings indicated that counselors tend to have positive attitudes. Greater personal familiarity and multicultural competence as well as being female were associated with more positive attitudes, whereas quantity of diversity training was not related and professional experience was related to more negative attitudes.     

Endorsement for Civil Rights for Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,and Transgender People Among Heterosexual College Students: Informing Socially Just Policy Advocacy

In the past decade, advocacy efforts to establish social policies that legally recognize same-sex relationships and protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people from employment discrimination have increased considerably throughout the country. To inform these advocacy campaigns, we investigate endorsement for LGBT civil rights among heterosexual college students (n = 1,714). Students, overall, were moderately supportive of LGBT rights. Twenty-one variables were found to be significant in the initial analyses; however, only seven retained significance in the final analysis which controlled for all variables. Results suggest that political ideology and specific LGBT attitudes are most influential. Religiosity and having LGBT extended family members are also important. Implications for LGBT advocacy efforts are discussed.     

Are Liberal Studies teachers ready to prepare human rights respecting students? A portrait of teachers’ attitudes towards human rights

As in most countries, human rights education (HRE) in Hong Kong has never been high on the educational agenda. In 2009, a compulsory subject, Liberal Studies (LS), which could be used as a platform for HRE, was introduced. The Hong Kong Institute of Education launched a research and development project which, as one of its objectives, studied LS teachers’ attitudes towards human rights and Rule of Law. This article first provides a brief overview of HRE. Then, the potential of HRE in LS will be discussed, followed by an introduction of the research project. Subsequently, the research design and findings will be presented. The findings reveal that there is a large gap between teachers’ understandings of human rights and international human rights standards. Since LS teachers’ attitudes are crucial for effective HRE, the findings are quite striking. The paper ends with recommendations for further research, policy formulations, and teacher preparation.     

Public Attitudes Toward the Ethics of Organ Donation

Abstract

This study expanded on previous investigations exploring public attitudes toward the human rights issues involved in organ donation practices and personal support for these practices. Participants included college and graduate students, and senior citizens (N = 99). Attitudes were assessed prior to and following the presentation of a brief informational DVD on major organ donation practices. Results indicated that participants were largely divided in their attitudes toward human rights issues, as well as in personal support for donation practices. Registration status was correlated with education, r = .47, p < .001. Support for donation incentive programs varied. Registered donors showed a change in attitudes toward human rights issues, t(22) = 2.18, p = .04. For non-registered donors, personal support for donation practices decreased after viewing the DVD, t(51) = - 3.06, p = .004. Results are discussed in terms of implications for increasing donation.     

Talking About Gender in Motion

Abstract

This is an interview with noted Norwegian sexologists Elsa Almas and Esben Esther Pirelli Benestad, who is bigender and married to Almas. In conversation with narrative therapist Christopher Behan, they discuss, both professionally and personally, working with those who have a transgender family member, the importance of community work to support the transgender child or adolescent, and the continued need for advocacy within the mental health and medical fields for transpeople and their loved ones.     

Post-handover identity: contested cultural bonding between China and Hong Kong

This study examines the formation of Hong Kong identity and its cultural articulation in Chinese identity in the post-handover years. Surveys of Hong Kong identity conducted between 1996 and 2016 demonstrate a set of interlinked yet contradictory findings: (i) the coexistence of both cultural pride in and resistance to cultural icons that represent the Chinese state; (ii) weakening correlations between China and Hong Kong regarding cultural affiliation; and (iii) the growing significance of cultural resistance to China by people who love Hong Kong. The survey results indicate the prevalence of an ambivalent identity in post-handover Hong Kong with regard to the coexistence of opposing attitudes toward Chinese identity. These results provide evidence of the complex cultural bonding between China and Hong Kong in the development of the China–Hong Kong relationship since the handover in 1997.     

Prevalence and risk and protective factors associated with HIV-related behavior among transgender people in Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper presents findings from the first large-scale quantitative study into HIV-related behavior among transgender people in Hong Kong. A survey of 195 transgender people found that only one-third of those who had engaged in sexual behavior in the past 3?months reported consistent condom use. Stable relationships, beliefs in low HIV transmission risk, and condom inaccessibility were cited as reasons for inconsistent condom use. The HIV testing figures were also strikingly low. This study demonstrates an urgent need for addressing HIV issues among transgender people in Hong Kong as there are currently no such specific services.     

For better,for worse? Public support for the capitalist model of the economy

A capitalist market economy is based on several institutional elements, such as private ownership and competition. Does public support for this economic model rise if the economy prospers, and fall during a downturn? Or is public support largely independent of the ups and downs of economic cycles? We hypothesize that positive economic performance increases support and that persons profiting personally are more supportive of the economic system's constitutive institutional elements. Using multilevel regression we study the determinants of individual-level support for the economic system. We also test for differences in the perception of economic performance due to political attitudes and personal properties. The findings partly support the hypotheses, indicating that macro-economic factors matter for individual-level attitudes towards the economy. Attitudes towards different institutional elements of the economic system also differ in the degree to which they are political or economic, and influenced by economic performance. Individual features – education and personal economic stakes – affect attitudes towards the economy, but a substantial share of the individual-level variation in economic attitudes remains unexplained.     

Towards Equality Through Legal Reform

SUMMARY

The focus of this article is the author's experience as one of the organizers of a recent campaign for tongzhi rights in Hong Kong. Tongzhi in general refers to lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trangendered people, and in some cases, their supporters as well. After ten years of public education and political advocacy, the tolerance level of the general public towards homosexuality has increased. However, despite this improved atmosphere, the situation remains far from ideal. Citing the recent legal advocacy campaign as an example, this paper illustrates how the proactive approach of tongzhi activists has resulted in significant progress in the battle for equality. These efforts began with Hong Kong's first tongzhi-led campaign supporting pro-tongzhi candidates to win seats in the Legislative Council, which subsequently contributed to the formation of a Subcommittee within the new Legislative Council with a specific mandate to review the situation of discrimination against sexual minorities.     

Living Arrangements and Informal Support for the Elderly

ABSTRACT

A network of informal care and support provided by family, friends and neighbors often forms the basis for elderly care. Changes in the structure of Chinese family alter this supportive function, and changes in traditional values affect the nature of the network and support provided. This is especially so in modernized Hong Kong where the traditional role of the family and especially children's duty of care for their aged parents (“filial piety”) may be weakening. This proposition was investigated by a qualitative study involving in-depth interviews with 50 older persons in a modern new town (Tuen Mun) in Hong Kong. Living arrangements, geographical proximity and the quality of relationships between potential caregivers and the elderly affected needs for and provision of informal support. Traditional Confucian filial piety is undergoing modification, perhaps erosion, implying ongoing changes in inter-generational relations in this modernized Asian society.     

Aspects of the political and personal sociology of AIDS: knowledge, policy attitudes and risk

Cette communication porte sur les déterminants des connaissances relatives au sida et des attitudes favorables à la protection des droits civils des personnes atteintes du vih tels qu'ils se dégagent d'une enqugte auprés d'environ 1,250 canadiens réalisée par téléphone à l'automne de 1988. L'auteur présente également une évaluation des influences réciproques des connaissances et des attitudes à l'égard du sida. Le degré de sensibilisation au sujet du sida et de l'infection au VIH est relativement élevé. La plupart des canadiens sont capables de décrire le sida et connaissent les modes de transmission du WH. Sur le plan des attitudes, les canadiens sont relativement tolérants. Ainsi, ils appuient largement le recours à des sanctions légaux contre la discrimination dans les domaines de l'emploi et du logement et une majoritéd'entre eux se déclarent favorables à l'anonymat des tests de dépistage du vih. Cependant, les réactions à des arguments d'ordre politique invoquant l'autorité de la profession médicale ou affirmant que des mesures autoritaires sont néessaires pour prévenir l'infection sont beaucoup plus conservatrices. L'analyse par régression des réponses indique que les personnes les mieux informées au sujet du sida ne se montrent pas nécessairement plus tolérantes mais que les gens dont les attitudes sont plus tolérantes sont plus portées à se renseigner davantage. La corrélation entre les attitudes à 1'égard du sida et les attitudes générales concernant les libertés civiles de même que les gais et lesbiennes est forte, mais il n'y a aucune corrélation entre les comportements à risque d'infection par le Wh, d'une part, et d'autre part, les connaissances ou les attitudes. Using data from a telephone survey of a representative sample of about 1,250 Canadians, conducted in the fall of 1988, this paper examines the determinants of knowledge about aids and attitudes supporting protection of the civil rights of HIV-infected persons and provides estimates of the reciprocal effects of knowledge and attitudes. Knowledge about AIDS and HN infection is relatively high. Most Canadians are able to describe aids and know how the virus is transmitted. Canadians also have relatively tolerant attitudes: there is very strong support for legal sanctions to prevent discrimination in employment and housing and majority support for anonymous testing for HTV infection. Policy arguments phrased in terms of the authority of the medical profession, or portraying authoritarian measures as being necessitated to prevent infection, however, results in much more conservative responses. Regression analysis shows that people whose knowledge about AIDS is greater are not more likely to have tolerant attitudes, but that having more tolerant attitudes leads people to become more knowledgeable. Attitudes towards AIDS are strongly correlated with general views about civil liberties and about gays and lesbians. Behaviour involving risk of infection is uncorrelated with knowledge or attitudes.     

Marital Status and Perceived Discrimination Among Transgender People

Despite calls for increased attention to the experiences of transgender people, scientific understanding of the stigma and discrimination this population experiences is limited. The authors integrate minority stress and marital advantage perspectives to assess marital status differences in transgender‐related perceived discrimination among transgender people in multiple life domains: the workplace, family, health care, and public accommodations. They analyze one of the first and most comprehensive large‐scale samples of transgender people in the United States (N = 4,286), the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. They find that married transgender respondents tend to report lower levels of perceived discrimination than their cohabiting and previously married transgender counterparts. Married transgender respondents do not, however, report lower levels of perceived discrimination than their never married counterparts, once all covariates are accounted for. These marital status differences appear primarily among transwomen but not transmen. Economic resources account for some, but not all, of these differences.     

Hong Kong Chinese aging adults voice financial care expectations in changing family and sociocultural contexts: implications for policy and services

Despite being one of the world’s wealthiest cities, approximately one-third of Hong Kong older adults live below the poverty line. Innovatively using the Photovoice research method, this study invited 36 Hong Kong Chinese aging adults to photograph images and voice their concerns and expectations regarding financial care. Insufficient government support, diminishing family support, insecurity and fear regarding future finances, and strong desire for self-sufficiency through early preparation and bridge employment were recurring themes observed in the participants’ photographs and narratives. The shifting of the participants’ financial care expectations from informal to formal sources in changing family and sociocultural contexts indicated that older people are in urgent need of policy reform from a needs-based to rights-based approach to foster empowerment and fulfill older people’s rights of financial security, dignity and participation. Improving the retirement protection system should go hand in hand with encouraging family support and caregiving and creating age-friendly working environment for older residents. The findings of this study may have crucial policy implications for Hong Kong and other aging societies, especially those that share similar filial piety values and have seemingly ungenerous welfare systems.     

Public opinion about AIDS policies. The role of misinformation and attitudes toward homosexuals

In an effort to better understand the cognitive and attitudinal factors underlying public opinion on AIDS-related issues, this article proposes and empirically tests a model of the relationships between (1) knowledge of HIV transmission, specifically the misinformation that AIDS can be transmitted easily through casual contact with HIV-infected persons; (2) attitudes toward homosexuals, the most prominent of the social groups presently affected by the AIDS crisis; and (3) support for restrictive public policies aimed at HIV-infected persons. Data from two nationally representative surveys conducted in December of 1985 (N = 2,308) and in July of 1987 (N = 2,095) provide evidence that misinformation about AIDS transmission and negative attitudes toward homosexuals are strong predictors of support for stringent restrictions of persons with AIDS. The findings also suggest that several background factors, in particular, education and political liberalism, may also play decisive roles in influencing levels of support for restricting those infected with the AIDS virus.     

A Study of Attitudes Towards Gays and Lesbians in the State of Utah,U.S.A.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine Utahans' attitudes towards gay and lesbian people and their civil rights. Utah politics are dominated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons) and the Republican Party, with membership typically shared by the two. However, Mormon sociocultural values are also distinctively pro-family and companionate. We wondered to what extent caring, warmth, and inclusiveness toward family members mitigated against the doctrinaire injunction to reject homosexuality and, if necessary, to reject family members who were homosexual.

We found that proponents of gay and lesbian civil rights were likely to be personally familiar with gays and lesbians, to have empathetic attitudes about gay and lesbian youth and being out, and to possess a commitment to legal rights for gay and lesbian individuals and families. Opponents of gay and lesbian civil rights were driven by moralistic imperatives about sexuality and the roots of sexual behavior, made a sharp distinction between what they perceived as social privileges and legally mandated rights and were not likely to have had much direct contact with gay and lesbian people. Our results suggest that Utahans indeed appear to be torn, or at best ambivalent, about the religious mandate to condemn homosexuality while at the same time prizing family ties and relationships above other values. For the same reasons, political actions directed at obtaining specific legal rights for gays and lesbians appear to have more support than expected, especially in the realms of partner benefits, employment discrimination, health benefits, and private freedoms. Legal marriage, however, is soundly rejected as a possibility, especially in view of the belief that marriage is sacred and exclusively for heterosexuals.     

Social Factors Affecting Antitransgender Sentiment in a Sample of Greek Undergraduate Students

Objectives: This study examined the attitudes of Greek undergraduate students toward transgender individuals to identify specific social variables as predictors of negative attitudes. Based on previous research, it appeared that gender, political conservatism, religiosity, and sexual prejudice are useful variables to examine in predicting attitudes toward transgender individuals. The sample (N = 238) consisted of undergraduates at various departments of major universities in Athens, Greece. Methods: The Genderism and Transphobia Scale (GTS) was used along with the Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men Scale (ATLG) and a brief demographics questionnaire. Results: Correlation analysis showed that negative attitudes toward transgender individuals were positively associated with religiosity, frequency of attendance at religious services, political designation, gender, and sexual prejudice. Regression analysis revealed mainly gender and secondly sexual prejudice (as measured by the ATLG) to be independent predictors of attitudes toward transgender individuals. Conclusions: The findings shed light on the current status of undergraduate students’ attitudes toward transgender individuals and reveal important variables that affect these attitudes in a specific sociocultural environment.     

Correlates of negative attitudes toward gay men: Sexism,male role norms,and male sexuality

Research has shown that heterosexual men are more negative toward gay men than women are on measures of attitudes toward homosexual behaviour and homosexual persons (Kite & Whitley, 1996). Gender differences in attitudes toward gay men's civil rights are less clear. No empirical studies, however, have investigated these findings with a scale that measures specifically these three attitudinal subcomponents. This study was a preliminary test of a scale that measured these subcomponents. In addition, this study investigated the relationship between these subcomponents and other attitudinal measures: hostile sexism, male toughness, and attitudes toward male sexuality. Results revealed that attitudes toward homosexual behaviour and homosexual persons comprised one factor: affective reactions toward gay men. Results showed that men were more negative on affective reactions than women were. No gender differences were revealed on attitudes toward civil rights. I found significant correlations between affective reactions, hostile sexism, male toughness, and male sexuality. I discuss these findings in relation to traditional gender role beliefs and make suggestions for future research.     

The elephant in the room: media ownership and political participation in Hong Kong

In Hong Kong’s open and law-abiding society, applying the political principle of “one country, two systems” presents a challenge to the Chinese government, particularly regarding its efforts to control media ownership. Focusing on the structure of media ownership in Hong Kong, this paper describes the ways in which the Internet – especially social media – has empowered activists and alternative media by providing a means of avoiding censorship and social control. This paper also describes the Chinese government’s use of political power and capital to censor and shape the media landscape in Hong Kong in order to dampen public interest in politics and influence public opinion. Finally, this paper attempts to identify potential solutions to this problem.