HongKong Focus

Time to show some Pride HK

By Elizabeth Kerr (HK Edition)
Updated: 2010-07-15 07:32

HK Pride's 2009 edition shows off its first major corporate sponsors - even though the march had to fight for road space. Eric Herrera / for China Daily

The 30-year-old Pride Toronto regularly sees millions crammed into the downtown core for the main event - the Pride Parade. Pride Toronto

June and July in dozens of cities around the globe means Gay Pride. Just not in Hong Kong ... yet. Elizabeth Kerr reports.

Did you know Hong Kong has a Gay Pride Parade? If you answered "No" you're not alone. An unscientific and unrepresentative Friday night survey in two popular gay bars, Volume and Propaganda, indicated that many of both bars' patrons were clueless about that fact. "I had no idea. Really?" was the most common response from a handful of Hong Kong's estimated 500,000 LGBT (referring collectively to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people) residents.

Right now, in London, Athens, Tel Aviv, Zagreb, Paris, Mexico City, Houston (whose out lesbian mayor, Annise Parker, is honorary grand marshal this year) and in countless other venues, the LGBT community is kicking into party mode. In Toronto, for example, Pride unsurprisingly drew over one million people in blistering heat to its July 4 parade. "Pride Toronto has played a large part in how diverse groups can be out and assembled in public spaces. At Pride, everyone is accepted, and welcomed into an inclusive, celebratory, and safe environment," explains Michael Ain, marketing and communications manager for Pride Toronto. Sexually-charged activists, families, leathermen and prominent politicians all took part. "I think Torontonians and the rest of the world can really get into being Proud," Ain states.

It is a great party, but it's one that rose from systematic discrimination. In late-June 1969 police raided the popular gay bar, The Stonewall Inn in Manhattan. Riots erupted and violent demonstrations were organized against the New York City Police Department and the routine harassment the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community routinely endured. It is widely considered the genesis of the modern LGBT civil rights movement.

So impending typhoon season notwithstanding, where is Hong Kong's Pride? Surely "Asia's World City" is more sophisticated than Houston, Texas?

That's debatable, says Eric J Herrera, self-professed Chief Dreamer and chair of business networking group, Fruits in Suits (FinS). "We had to re-brand FinS because Hong Kong is still quite conservative in many ways," he explains. One man at Volume agreed, stating flat out he would not support a big boisterous event like Toronto's, reasoning it's "just not right for Hong Kong."

"I don't agree it's not appropriate for Hong Kong," argues writer Nigel Collett. "I'd like to see (a massive Pride event). I think everybody would in their heart of hearts." If Hong Kong's November Pride Parade (better weather, even if symbolically weak) happens again, 2010 will be its third. Last year, 2,000 people joined the march, a respectable number considering the world's biggest Pride Parade in Sao Paulo, Sydney's month-long Mardi Gras, and Toronto all began with similar numbers.

"We are still far, far away when you try to compare Hong Kong with cities with over 10 or 20 years' experience in Pride. It's not fair," states human rights activist and chief director of the Hong Kong Pride Parade Committee Connie Chan. "I'd rather compare it with other Asian cities."

At press time, a 2010 edition of the fledgling HK Pride was unconfirmed. "For me, Pride Day is a public education event to let society see us, and let the LGBT community be their true selves." To Chan, the parade is a more joyful counterpart to IDAHO (International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia), which she first organized in 2005, despite fears LGBT Hongkongers wouldn't participate in an overtly political march and pressure from the Christian Right. A total of 350 people defiantly showed up in Causeway Bay that day. "That may not be a big number to other countries, but I can say it's really a big success (here) ... I may have a different point of view on Pride than (Collett and Herrera). I make it a social movement. I am an activist." When asked if activism and fun can coexist, she declares, "Yes, of course. People always think that politics are hard to take, but selling it softly is my point. All roads lead to Rome!"

But there are considerable obstacles: Property prices keep young LGBT residents at their parents' or other relatives' homes and in the closet; constitutional debate in the Legislative Council has back-burnered many other issues; public assembly criteria are archaic; the local LGBT community is reluctant to support the event financially (2009's Pride is still $30,000 in the red); and institutional resistance stemming from a lingering missionary mindset is strong. When trying to rent a bus in 2008, Herrera recalls that a local bus company "sent an email that basically said 'We don't support (LGBT) things'. We've had no reaction from the city about it." It was a moot issue, as by-laws state that vehicles and pedestrians cannot share roads. "Well this is silly," Herrera states flatly. So long Dykes on Bikes.

Critical, however, is the disconnect between the vocal expatriate and local Chinese LGBT communities and the more political activists, a gap in communication and perception Collett has been trying to bridge. "The two don't tend to speak too much," Collett laments. Herrera goes on to stress that whatever HK Pride comes to, "It has to be organized by the local culture ... It doesn't have the same meaning (if expats do it). It's crucial to larger acceptance by the local culture, too." In many ways the two are simply echoing Chan. "(After IDAHO) I started to think of a Pride Day ... Hong Kong's own Pride Day. I prepared for two years - not for money, but for people."

No one's feeling particularly motivated either; Hong Kong hasn't had the galvanizing Stonewall moment that drives people into the streets. "The (decriminalization of homosexuality) back in 1991 took away the great 'problem'. The natural reticence of Chinese society allows things to bumble along without anybody being overtly badly oppressed. Nobody gets murdered here; you don't get beaten up in the street," Collett argues. The low-key nature of discrimination has put LGBT civil rights in the margins. "You can live quite decently by keeping your head down."

So how can HK Pride make inroads? It should come as no surprise that ultimately, money might talk.

Hong Kong already boasts two major LGBT events: The October Flotilla and November's Hong Kong Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (HKLGFF). "We hope to get the tourist board interested, so that the whole thing becomes part of a festival," that draws regional travelers. Collett says. Less insular than Tokyo, less censorial than Singapore, Hong Kong would seem the ideal location for a regional Pride event. "The idea's been informally put to the government and been greeted with an informal lack of interest," scoffs Collett. On that front, Chan agrees. "I think we have a geographical advantage in being part of China - as the open door of China, and we are closer to Taiwan, which has the biggest Pride Day in Asia," she theorizes. "(HK Pride could grow in the future) as the power from the 'Greater China Region.'"

The economic impact of Pride on Toronto totaled CND$136 million - almost HK$1 billion. The event generated around 600 full-time jobs, hordes of tourists who spent upwards of $24 million in the hospitality industries, and stuffed the public coffers with millions in tax revenue in 2009 - a recession year. How can the tourist board bypass that kind of cash? Stats like those may win Pride support in the end. "To be fair to the government, they're not interested at the moment, because we're not making enough noise about it," says Collett. Anthony Lau, Executive Director of the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) responds, "As the organization tasked with marketing and promoting Hong Kong as a travel destination worldwide, the HKTB supports all sorts of events and activities that are appealing to visitors. Hong Kong is recognized as a free and open city offering wide-ranging tourist entertainment and activities. Information about gay and lesbian establishments ... is provided to overseas media and in-town visitors." Whether or not that's a ringing endorsement is up to Pride's organizers.

"Money does talk," Herrera states, with Collett backing him up, theorizing that any change in the city's amenability to an LGBT event will be the result of trickle- down from business. The threat of losing international investment, talent or tourists to Shanghai or Singapore could light the proverbial fire. "That will bring a constituency to bear on the government that it's not expecting. You'll have what they regard as conservative forces arguing for diversity policies ... Anything the business community says (the government) will hear. They won't hear the activists." But, say, IBM, which co-sponsored - with Goldman Sachs - Hong Kong's first diversity guide for Community Business in June, is another story.

One business willing to come on board is Lan Kwai Fong Entertainments, which regularly supports the HKLGFF. Sales and marketing director Caroline Chow laughs when asked if an LGBT event would scare her off. "Why? We would welcome any kind of event. We're lucky Hong Kong is an international city... I'd like to support this kind of event and I think it's time (the LGBT community) showed it was part of society," in a more major way.

Chan however is a little more skeptical. "Business' ultimate objective is maximizing profits, not equality in society," she points out. "You don't know if this is another marketing strategy for developing the LGBT market."

It's not all doom and gloom. Chan corresponds with IDAHO organizers around the world, she's ensured HK Pride is a member of the global InterPride collective, and no one expects drastic shifts in thinking overnight. After 30 years, Ain points out, "Toronto Pride sets an example, but still has a lot to learn, and together we still have a lot to accomplish." Herrera has witnessed changes in business response. "Mandarin Oriental, Langham, the Mira ... I had to chase these (FinS sponsors) six years ago. Now they're coming to us," Herrera states.

Philosophical differences aside, they all have high hopes for HK Pride becoming a major event on the city's calendar. Herrera credits Hongkongers for a fundamental open-mindedness, and Chan for the LGBT community's ability to surprise. As Collett sums up, "It's a slow moving turtle, but it will get to the finish line."

(HK Edition 07/15/2010 page2)