Hong Kong law school ‘may have breached anti-discrimination rules’ by telling transgender student to use toilets for the disabled

Hong Kong’s equality watchdog has found that Chinese University’s law school may have breached anti-discrimination legislation by telling a transgender student to use toilets designated for people with disabilities after she inquired about using the ones for women, according to the complainant.

Christine Chu Tsz-wa, a 24-year-old transgender woman pursuing a postgraduate certificate in laws at the university, on Thursday said in a social media post that the Equal Opportunities Commission had contacted her with its preliminary findings in the case.

Speaking to the Post, Chu revealed she started receiving feminising hormone therapy in November last year. While Chu was undergoing social transition, a psychiatrist from a government hospital advised her to switch from using toilets for people with disabilities to ones for women, as a way to prepare for planned gender-affirming surgery.

In the letter, the psychiatrist said being treated as a woman in social situations and using appropriate gender-specific facilities was an important part of the transition process, Chu added.

The student sent the letter to the university’s law faculty and asked for permission to use the women’s facilities at the Graduate Law Centre in Admiralty, but her request was rejected.

“The law school said there was a ‘barrier-free’ toilet which was gender-neutral,” she said. “For me, the point is not whether the school allowed me to use women’s toilets or not, it’s them telling me to use toilets for the disabled instead. This attitude is kind of discriminatory.”

She added two professors had tried to help her but the law faculty insisted on the decision. Chu then sought legal advice and filed a complaint to the commission two weeks ago.