Hong Kong Scared to Show its True Colours

Cathay Pacific wants to show diversity with this advert, but it's banned in HK

Last Friday Taiwan made a bold statement last week in legalizing same-sex marriages, the first place in Asia to do so.

In a way it threw down the gauntlet on other Asian places to see where they stand, and in the case of Hong Kong, it's still in the closet.

The city's airline carrier, Cathay Pacific also made a daring move with its rebranding with its campaign "Move Beyond", in a bid to demonstrate its diversity. In one of its images, it shows two Asian men wearing suits and holding hands as they walk along a beach.

Other Cathay campaign images are shown in MTR stations

However, both the Airport Authority, which runs Hong Kong's airport and the MTR Corporation rejected showing this image, and other ones are being shown around the city.

Since the news broke about not showing the image of the two men, MTR Corp tried to blame its advertising agency, JCDecaux to reconsider using it in the future. However this wasn't enough for LGBT groups, demanding to know when in the future MTR Corp would use the image.

"What does it mean that they will consider so in the future? What about [this advert] this time?" said Raymond Chan Chi-chuen, Hong Kong's first openly gay lawmaker.

"We reiterate that the MTR Corporation is committed to equal opportunities in all aspects of its business and supports diversity, and it does not tolerate any form of discrimination on the grounds of gender, sexual orientation or any other factor," the corporation said on Monday.

So... why not let actions speak louder than words and post the image in the stations?

Meanwhile, the Airport Authority tried to explain its reasoning not to show the image due to "established guidelines" on how adverts are displayed. 

"In the airport's environment, one important consideration is given to the fact that [the airport] receives a large number of passengers of all ages with different cultural backgrounds from all over the world," a spokesman for the Airport Authority said.

The LGBT community has started an online campaign

He said the advert in question had not been submitted to the authority, perhaps again blaming the ad agency.

In the meantime,  the LGBT community has started an online campaign, getting people, homosexual or not to hold a picture of the banned image and take pictures of themselves in MTR stations or at the airport, and post it on social media.

Already Gigi Chao, daughter of property tycoon Cecil Chao, posted a picture of herself and another woman at the Airport Express where they held up a sign, "#MoveBeyondDiscrimination".

Chao made headlines around the world in 2012 when her father offered HK$500 million (US$63.7 million) to any man who would marry his daughter, even though she was already married to another woman. Two years later he doubled the offer to HK$1 million.

Gigi Chao (left) and friend at Airport Express

Previously Cathay Pacific CEO Rupert Hogg had said of the rebranding campaign: "The inclusion bit is really important. No matter who you are, when you come to work at Cathay Pacific... we want you to be who you are and feel really comfortable and be a productive part of the team and that's what we strive for."

Also, the airline told staff in an internal meeting that one of the key messages of the rebranding was to "fly with pride for our LGBT community allies".

Can we please move forward with this issue? Hong Kong looks like an ostrich with its head in the sand next to Taiwan. We look sheepish in dealing with the reality of diversity in the community instead of embracing it.