A video showing the man kissing another man was leaked on Chinese social media in
Since the video appeared, the airline suspended Chai for six months and cut his pay, Chai’s lawyer Zhong Xialu said. Chai said he was paid around 10% of his salary while under suspension. The airline also declined to renew his contract, which was a five-year deal that was up for renewal in April this year.
Chai, who had been working for the airline since 2015, said he was sad to lose a job that he loved.
“I don’t want there to be anyone else like me who will be treated in this way. I think I really represent a very, very common worker, but just one who happens to be a sexual minority,” he said. “We shouldn’t be discriminated against, we shouldn’t be oppressed and receive this unfair treatment, that’s why I am protesting.”
“I understand what it means for me to go against a company this large, to fight for my rights,” he added. “It means I can never do the job that I love again, at least not in China.”
LGBT individuals in
In the past few years, a few individuals, with assistance from activists, have successfully lobbied their cases in court. Many do so through cases brought in under consumer or employment law, as
Chai had previously brought the case to arbitration as a labour dispute, but the arbitration court ruled in favour of the airline in August. He then decided to take his dispute to court. On Monday, he appeared in a
China Southern is owned directly by the government. Representatives to the company’s public relations department could not be reached for comment.
“A company this large and their attitude toward sexual minorities really represents what the workplace environment is like for sexual minorities in
This is the second such case in recent years that activists have waged on discrimination in the workplace for LGBT individuals in
In
“China doesn’t have an anti-discrimination law and it does not have an workplace anti-discrimination law,” said Peng Yanzi, director of L.G.B.T. Rights Advocacy China, an activist group. “So when many people are met with discrimination in the workplace, they basically have no law to rely on.”
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