Vincent Cheng Joins EOC Despite Anti-gay Stance

DAB lawmaker Vincent Cheng was appointed as a new member of the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) on Friday, even though he has previously made clear his opposition to same-sex marriage.

Cheng is one of three new faces appointed for a two-year term at the watchdog from May 20.

He voted against a non-binding motion in Legco last November calling for a government study on creating legal unions for gay couples. And in 2017, as the DAB's deputy secretary general, he hosted a seminar opposing making same-sex marriage legal.

Local LGBT rights group Pink Alliance said Cheng's appointment was regrettable.

"As a statutory body responsible for the eradication of discrimination and promotion of equal opportunities, the commission should not hold any prejudicial views," the group said in a social media post.

In response, Cheng said he respects people of different sexual orientation and that they shouldn't be discriminated against.

He added that he believes he was appointed to the equality watchdog on the strength of his work for ethnic minorities here, saying he has been focusing on achieving equal rights for them over the past decade.

“I hope that when I go into the EOC I can mainly focus on ethnic minority rights and I think there’s a lot of work that we should do”, Cheng said.

He said he often hears stories of discrimination from his ethnic minority friends, who say they’re not treated as equals and feel they are at a disadvantage when seeking jobs.

Cheng’s party, the DAB, has long campaigned against ‘fake refugees’, who it says abuse the system and are responsible for many serious crimes such as rape. It has previously advocated the building of shelters in outlying islands for asylum seekers.

Critics have complained that the party’s stance reinforces negative stereotypes of asylum seekers – many of whom are from ethnic minority groups.

Gary Wong, a co-convenor of executive councillor Ronny Tong's Path of Democracy think tank was also appointed to the commission, as was Anna Thompson, the human resources director at Swire Properties.

Cheng, Wong and Thompson replace three outgoing EOC members: DAB lawmaker Holden Chow, nursing sector lawmaker Joseph Lee and the Hong Kong Sports Institute's chief executive, Trisha Leahy.

Chow had also been a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage and warned that extending rights to people from the LGBT community would undermine Hong Kong's values.

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