The city's first social services centre for homosexuals was launched yesterday with a one-year grant of HK$430,000 from the Aids Trust Fund.
Kenneth Cheung Kam-hung, founder of Rainbow of Hong Kong, said the centre would organise counselling, training workshops for volunteers and special interest classes, as well as set up a hotline to provide peer support for homosexuals.
'We found that the existing social services groups were unable to reach the minority group. Merely distributing condoms and carrying out blood tests are not enough to help them,' he said.
Findings of a survey conducted by the group, which were released at the launch ceremony for the office in Jordan yesterday, indicated as many as 92 per cent of the gay men interviewed this month said they had not used any service or taken part in any of the activities organised by other welfare groups last year. More than 20 per cent said the welfare groups were gay-friendly, while the same percentage disagreed.
Of the 314 people interviewed on choosing one or more options for having HIV tests, 180 selected gay organisations, 147 selected Aids service groups and 132 picked the Department of Health. The top three concerns influencing their choices were confidentiality of personal information, friendliness to homosexuals and reputation of the service groups.
About 37 per cent of the interviewees said they were worried about exposing their sexual orientation. As many as 70 per cent of the respondents said they were bothered by their sexual orientation.