Many love hotels will not rent rooms to same-sex couples, an investigation has revealed - prompting calls from gay and lesbian activists for a law against discrimination on grounds of sexuality.
Nine Sunday Morning Post reporters posing as couples - both heterosexual and homosexual - last week visited love hotels in Kowloon Tong. The pairs asked to hire rooms at seven establishments in Kent Road and Cumberland Road.
Four of the hotels would not rent rooms to reporters posing as same-sex couples. The hotels' managers said their companies had a policy of turning away same-sex couples. Heterosexual couples, naturally, did not have any trouble getting rooms.
Reggie Ho, honorary chairman of Horizons, a gay and lesbian group, accused the love hotel operators of depriving homosexual couples of their rights. He said same-sex couples had been denied entry to love hotels for years. But he argued that Hong Kong's congested living environment meant that couples needed such services.
'Same-sex couples need to go to love hotels to spend time with each other, especially if they live with their families,' Mr Ho said. 'Otherwise, it is impossible for them unless one lives alone. This is only a kind of service and the love hotels have to make money anyway. Why are homosexuals being discriminated against?'
Mr Ho said operators banned same-sex couples because they were afraid of offending other couples. 'They are only guessing what their clients think. What these operators do is simply reinforcing discrimination,' he said.
Roddy Shaw Kwok-wah, chairman of Civil Rights for Sexual Diversities, said the love hotels were clearly practising discrimination based on sex and sexual orientation.