Six in ten Hong Kong people support legal protections for LGBTI people, according to a new report.

The paper, published by the Centre for Comparative and Public Law at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), comes two weeks after a three-month public consultation on the city’s anti-discrimination laws.

‘Our survey found that a majority of Hong Kong people hold generally favorable views of gays and lesbians, and a majority support enacting legislation to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. Only 20% of the public said that they disagree with such legislation,’ the report said.

An overwhelming majority of respondents, 83 per cent, said parents should love their children regardless of their sexual orientation.

In contrast, only 16 per cent of respondents said that their acceptance of an individual was affected by the individual’s sexual orientation and 28 per cent said gays and lesbians were immoral.

The analysis was based on a random sample of 410 people aged 18 and over living in Hong Kong, who were surveyed via telephone last year.

There are no laws against discrimination on the against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in Hong Kong, although the Equal Opportunities Commission launched a Discrimination Law Review in July and has commissioned a study on the feasibility of legislating against discrimination against LGBTI people.

‘The government has been using "lack of public support" as an excuse for not prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity,’ Billy Leung, outreach officer at Pink Alliance, told GSN.

‘This assertion no longer holds truth of what the Hong Kong public’s attitude toward gays and lesbians when it comes to offering them with legal protection from discrimination.’

An earlier report found that 74 per cent of Hong Kong people supported some rights for gay couples.