LGBT Government workers in China have said they continue to find it very difficult to come out at work due to the conservative nature of Governmental offices, reports Global Times.

Although some foreign and private companies in the country are waking up the benefits of embracing diversity and inclusion practices, polls have revealed that traditional attitudes persist in Government offices and Government-affiliated workplaces.

A survey undertaken in late 2014 by Shanghai-based WorkForLGBT revealed that only 2% of respondents (from a sample of 8,000 gay people) in State-owned enterprises (SOEs) had disclosed their sexuality at work.

This compares poorly to those working in foreign companies, where 9% had told their boss and 27% had told colleagues about their sexuality.

Earlier this year, China hosted its first LGBT careers fair. Although a sign of progress in itself, it was foreign companies, including Google, IBM, Ford, Starbucks, Microsoft and McKinsey, that featured heavily among the exhibitors.

Cheng He (a pseudonym), gave Global Times an insight into why he chose to remain in the closet.

‘It’s impossible for me to disclose my sexual orientation at the office.

‘I don’t think it’s necessary and my colleagues would not accept me being gay anyway,’ said 25-yeard-old Cheng, who works in a Government-affiliated research center in Beijing.

Governmental jobs convey respectability and relative financial security, meaning that they remain a desirable choice with many young Chinese citizens.

Cheng said that he had previously had a boyfriend, who also worked in a Governmental office, but they broke up when his boyfriend decided to marry a woman – an option that many gay men choose in order to conceal their true sexuality.

Cheng himself was so upset by the split that he was unable to hide his sorry, and told his family he’d ‘broke up with a girl’.

Cheng says that many gay men marry lesbians in order to conform to traditional expectations, and that he had lost count of the number of times that colleagues had shown him pictures of single women and tried to encourage him to go out on dates.

He said that if a man is over 30 and still single, even his boss is likely to try and arrange dates for him with suitable single women.

Blackmail is another potential threat for those who stay in the closet, while the risk of being overlooked for promotion is another reason for some to stay quiet.

‘If I wanted to be promoted, I would not accept any interviews to talk about homosexuality, even on condition of anonymity,’ said Cheng.

Another worker, Mi Tao, was one of the small number of gay civil servants who was out at work. However, he knew of a closeted colleague who had been denied promotion because of his apparently close friendship to Mi Tao; something that had aroused the suspicions of his superiors.

According to late 2013 figures, China has 7.2million civil servants, and a further 31.5million public sector workers employed by institutions such as schools and hospitals.

Same-sex sexual activity is legal in China, but there is no legal recognition of same-sex relationships and there are no laws preventing sexual orientation discrimination.