Gay groups to protest against political 'family values' advert

Homosexual concern groups will stage a protest today outside the offices of a conservative religious group that placed an advertisement calling on the government and Legislative Council election candidates to defend heterosexual marriage.

The full-page advertisement, placed by the Society for Truth and Light in two Chinese-language newspapers yesterday, urged the government to do more to strengthen traditional family values and heterosexual marriage in the face of rising divorce rates.

About 125 mainly Christian groups and 7,048 individuals expressed support in the advertisement.

'Another reason we ran the advertisement is that we do not want to see gay people living under the same roof to be included in the Domestic Violence Ordinance,' Society for Truth and Light secretary general Choi Chi-sum said.

About a dozen members of various gay and lesbian groups will gather outside the society's office in Mong Kok to voice their discontent over the advertisement.

In June, the ordinance was extended to cover people abused not only by present or former spouses, but by family members and present or former cohabitants - taken to mean males and females living together as couples.

The amendment took effect from the start of this month.