Anti-gay Christians to `advise' teachers

A Christian anti-gay group has won a Hong Kong government contract to advise teachers on how to teach human rights in the classroom, sparking anger yesterday from gay-rights organizations.

The Society for Truth and Light outbid human-rights watchdogs and academics to run the training program under the government's civic-education scheme, which is aimed at boosting nationalism.

The group has come under fire in the past for condemning homosexuality and opposing gay rights.

Activist Roddy Shaw of Civil Rights for Sexual Diversities deplored the move as "inappropriate" and said the society was ill-equipped to teach human rights.

"We've seen this organization attack not only the gay and lesbian community but also other sectors it feels are immoral," Shaw said.

"They don't have a position to be teaching human rights to high-school teachers," he said.

Homosexuality was only decriminalized in Hong Kong in 1991.

The Society for Truth and Light was unavailable for comment.

However, in what the South China Morning Post reported were extracts from the teaching course outline, the society says one of the themes it will discuss is "excessive use of human rights."

"Following the trend of liberalization, people only emphasize individual rights and ignore one's responsibility and obligation to society," the paper quotes the course outline as saying. "Extreme liberalists always uphold human rights to strike against traditional social values."

"The society hopes, by organizing this program, teachers will understand the true meaning of human rights," it adds.