My Pride Story: Florence Chan

Florence (Sai Wing) Chan speaks to our Alfred Ip about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: from the pure concept of it to the reasons why businesses need to look at DEI as a necessity to strengthen their workforce, show empathy and build appropriate policies, programs, initiatives to achieve a better and more equitable balance.

Issues can be diverse: they range from women empowerment, disability training, culture, race and to (one of the most prominent efforts) LGBTQ+ inclusion. She talks about visibility, as well as research showing the positive impact that DEI has on business efficiency, revenue growth, investor support, reduced attrition rates, etc…

Florence points out that many companies in Asia which have strong focus on DEI are international companies, while most local companies tend to include the DEI concept into “being a family” or “teamwork” and think that DEI relates to values which are more Western. There’s an urgent need to explain the concept to encourage more local business to buy in, while it is also true that attitudes and cultural nuances play a role in approaching the topic slightly differently, especially within working environments which are traditionally more reserved.

Florence commends the work that Hugill & Ip does in terms of legal and general awareness in kickstarting discussions within society that relate to same-sex couples and the wider LGBTQ+ community. Alfred adds that as a law firm with a particularly prominent practice in Estate Planning and Family work, Hugill & Ip has an advantage as well as an obligation to bring such awareness and needs to the table.

Florence talks about her personal experience as a parent and how she tries to face biases within society. Nowadays there are many more resources available to parents that support the required discussions they have with their children about gender identity and sexual orientation. She also highlights the effort that individuals need to make to ensure full access and availability of such resources to parents as well as to normalize what societal reality ought to be for everyone.

Florence shares her personal experience growing up bisexual and learning that families come in many different forms. She wishes younger generations to be more aware of the fact that modern families can include a rainbow of life choices and forms while assimilating into society. Alfred adds that the happiness factor takes a much more prominent place in modern society and upbringing.

Florence goes on discussing her work with Gender Empowerment (https://genderempowerment.org/), a Hong Kong NGO focusing on supporting transgender individuals and their families to integrate into the community and building harmony. She also shares a specific situation where an individual needs to hide their own gender identity in order to cope with their family.

In the concluding chapter of the interview, Florence shares important advice about individuals and parents getting support from several valuable organisations – e.g. PFLAG (https://pflag.org/), BGCA’s Project Touch (https://www.bgca.org.hk/) and Rainbow Families of Hong Kong’s Facebook Group (香港彩虹家庭).

Let us know what you think by sharing your experience and comments or by writing to [email protected]