Finding the “Humanity” in Human Rights: LGBT Activists and the Vernacularization of Human Rights in Hong Kong

Through an ethnographic analysis of Hong Kong LGBT activists’ fight for a gender recognition ordinance (GRO) that would simplify the process for transgender Hongkongers to change their legal gender, a paradox emerged: Why was a human rights framing of LGBT issues problematic when human rights were central to locals’ understanding of what it meant to be Hongkongers? Local LGBT activists’ vernacularization of human rights—or the process of localization of international human rights law into culturally relevant frameworks—hinged on reframing the need for a GRO as a matter of humanity, not human rights law. Relying on citations of human rights law among “ordinary citizens” violated the existing ways in which Hongkongers talked about human rights as a method of distinguishing Hong Kong from the rest of the People’s Republic of China. Furthermore, this need to differentiate emerged from the 2014 Umbrella Movement in which prodemocracy activists occupied various urban centers in Hong Kong for seventy-nine days. The Umbrella Movement caused a shift in which ordinary citizens became responsible for each other and defending what made Hong Kong unique. Ultimately, the vernacularization process requires closer attention to the ways in which human rights are being talked about on the ground.

这篇论文通过对香港LGBT活动家争取性别认同法案（GRO）过程的民族志分析，揭示了一个悖论：在人权是香港人身份认同核心的情况下，为什么LGBT议题以人权框架呈现会成为问题？香港本地的LGBT活动家在本土化人权的过程中，将争取GRO的需求重新框定为“人性”问题，而非人权法律问题。这种本土化过程突显了普通市民引用国际人权法的做法与香港人传统上区分香港与中国其他地区的方式相悖。此外，2014年雨伞运动使得普通市民成为捍卫香港独特性和相互支持的重要力量。这一过程强调了人权在香港本土语境下如何被重新定义和讨论。

这篇论文采用民族志研究方法，深入分析香港LGBT活动家争取性别认同法案（GRO）的过程。研究通过参与观察和与活动家的访谈，探讨了香港LGBT运动如何将国际人权法律本土化，以符合香港文化的框架。

这篇论文的发现表明，香港LGBT活动家在争取性别认同法案（GRO）的过程中，采用了将国际人权法律本土化的策略，通过将性别认同问题重新定义为“人性”问题，而非简单的人权法案来推动议题。尽管人权在香港普通市民的理解中扮演着重要角色，但将人权法作为框架讨论LGBT问题，反而与香港人独特的社会认同产生冲突，这种冲突源自2014年雨伞运动中，香港市民开始认为自己有责任捍卫香港的独特性和民主价值。总的来说，本土化人权的过程反映了对人权的讨论如何被嵌入香港独特的文化和政治语境中，这一过程中，香港LGBT活动家的实践和普通市民的参与共同塑造了人权的本土理解。