The Hong Kong Pride Parade 

Information about the Hong Kong Pride Parade 

With anti-discrimination as the leading principle, the Hong Kong Pride Parade advocates for equal rights through displaying the different facets of the LGBT community, and to promote public awareness for respect of diversity. A lively procession is the best form of public education in Hong Kong. As a non-profit organization, we create an open platform for communication, allowing LGBT communities to present themselves and call for diversity through the Pride Parade.

Details

Date: 7 November, 2015 (Saturday)
Gathering time: 2pm
Venue: Victoria Park (close to Causeway Bay)
Parade route: Victoria Park (Soccer Pitch 1) -> Hennessy Road (Westbound) -> Tamar Park, Admiralty

Theme of Hong Kong Pride Parade 2015

Yell Out For Equality

We do not need to look the same to be born equal. Whenever you look at the strange, unique few, you may feel uncomfortable at the sight of them. Where do these feelings come from? Probably it’s just because they are different from you.

We hope that this year’s Hong Kong Pride Parade can enlighten you, so that you can embrace those who are different from you and see that they are far from frightening. What actually bring harm to the society are: discrimination, prejudice, hatred and thoughts of excluding difference. Our society is composed of tens of thousands of individuals – all different from one another. The Harvard Business Review puts forward the idea of inclusivity of the LGBT community at the workplace. In 96.8% of the largest Fortunes 50 companies, anti-discrimination policies have been enacted, under the philosophy that individual difference drives social progress.

Homosexuals are different from those who are not: some wear differently, walk differently, love differently. They, nevertheless, hope that Hong Kong can be an equal and inclusive society as written on the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”. All human beings are born free and equal. They should enjoy equal rights to employment, education, provision of goods, facilities or services, and social participation. 

The Hong Kong Pride Parade 2015 Visual Theme Giraffe

When people say the Cantonese idiom “Waiting till our necks become long”, we can most probably think of a giraffe, with an extraordinarily long neck. Using the giraffe as our mascot this year represents that LGBTs have been waiting and fighting for over 20 years to eliminate discrimination.

There are two yellow giraffe in our theme photo, in which one of them has rainbow colors on its neck representing the LGBT community. The two giraffe tells is that even if they have different colors, they can still embrace and accept each other. The Hong Kong Pride Parade hopes to make use of the giraffes this year to raise people’s awareness on the importance of EQUALITY.

The Hong Kong Pride Parade -- A Courageous step towards Equality in Hong Kong

Do you want Hong Kong to become an inclusive and fair place? 2015 is a remarkable time for LGBT equality around the globe, yet in Hong Kong, LGBT rights has stopped. Despite fighting for the enactment of Sexual Orientation Discrimination Ordinance for over 20 years, there is still no sign of legislative action in Hong Kong. A study performed in 2012 by The University of Hong Kong showed that over 60% of the surveyed population safeguard the rights of people of different sexual orientation against discrimination, but the motion on “Equal Rights for People of Different Sexual Orientations” to urge the government to conduct public consultation on this matter was rejected under the split voting system by the members of the functional constituencies. Over 80 countries and territories all over the world have enacted lawas to protect the LGBT community from discrimination, including Taiwan, Macao, the Philippines, Nepal, etc. Yet the self-proclaimed international metropolis, Hong Kong, is no better than a Third World country in terms of providing rights for sexual minorities.

Everyone is responsible for creating a society built on equality. The Hong Kong Pride Parade aims to attract more people to stand up for freedom and equality. Waving the colourful rainbow flag in Hong Kong shows the diverse and harmonious side of our city. It also serves to push the society at large to set up more inclusive policies.

Hong Kong Pride Parade needs your support. We hope that everyone will not only join the parade on 7 November, but also donate to fund our organisation.

Why do we ask for donations from the public?

Hong Kong Pride Parade is a non-profit organization, and requires stable funding to organize the annual parade. Sources of expenditure include designing promotional products, staging, audio-visual equipment, venue set-up, and logistics. The greater the scale of the parade, the greater the expenditure required for organizing the event.

The debut of the first Hong Kong Pride Parade in 2008 was a great start. To foster greater support for equality and diversity, the organizing committee exerts its utmost efforts to achieve new breakthroughs to attract stakeholders in Hong Kong. In the previous Pride Parades, we have garnered the support of different political parties, community organizations, student councils of universities, legislative council members, and local celebrities. There is a year-on-year increase in the number of parade participants. In 2014, there were 8,900 participants joined us to call for equality.

Funding has always been a major challenge to us as the Parade Organizing Committee has to pay the majority of expenditures in advance before the event. The lack of funding in 2010 resulted in an inability to host the Pride Parade that year. Till this day, we have never received any support from the Hong Kong Government, monetary or otherwise, and the operational fees has been painstakingly gathered from the diligent efforts of volunteers in selling promotional products, and kind donations from other LGBT-friendly allies.

We strive to diversify our sources of funding, but the controversy surrounding sexual minorities is an obstruction in getting sponsorship. There have been accounts of ceasing sponsorship during negotiations because of the stance that the Pride Parade takes. Under the efforts of the organizing committee, we are only able to obtain support from a handful of sponsors to smoothen the organization of the Parade.

We estimate that participation in this year’s Pride Parade will exceed 10,000 people, increasing the preparation workload and expenses. Each year, preparation of the Hong Kong Pride Parade takes more than 8 months of work, including setting a theme, getting approval for the procession route, designing the style of parade promotion, ordering for the custom-made souvenirs, training volunteers, mass promotion within Hong Kong, etc. Taking this year's parade for example, we have to host two large-scale volunteer meetings to train over 300 volunteers on how to manage tasks before and on the day of the parade. We also have to set up booths and outreach for over 30 times. The pride parade never had enough funds to hire any full-time staff to take care of the enormous amount of work, all of which are completed by committee members in their spare time.

Funding goals: Stabilizing fund sources to promote equality

We hope that through this channel of collecting public donations, we will be able to cover the costs for running the annual Pride Parade. If this target is met, we hope to collect enough surplus to hire one staff member and rent a site office to handle the enormous workload and materials of the annual Pride Parade.

By stabilizing our funding sources, the Hong Kong Pride Parade will be able to develop steadily and allow more of the mass public to get in touch with the purpose of the Hong Kong Pride Parade.

Our donation target for covering operational costs: HKD200,000

(Extra funds to hire one staff and renting an office: HKD100,000)

Why do we have a Hong Kong Pride Parade?

This is our seventh year hosting the Hong Kong Pride Parade. Looking back, gay rights activism started from the International Day Against Homophobia Hong Kong (IDAHO) in 2005, when apprehensive participants come onto the streets, to the welcoming atmosphere in 2008, when the message became specific. Instead of envying other nations for their pride parades, we would rather have one held in Hong Kong, tailored to our local needs and culture.

From 2008 onwards, we organized an annual pride parade, spreading the message of equality and diversity in a positive, fun light. Themed Celebrate Love, we held our first Pride Parade, attracting 1000 participants, pushing the boundaries of gay rights activism in Hong Kong.

In recent years, due to increasing number of brave members coming out of their closets, the mainstream public is more exposed to the presence of their fellow gay population, helping the society to become more accommodating. The number of participants in the Pride Parade is increasing each year, while mainstream media has become more inclined to report on news about the LGBT population, and there is more support from different people and organizations. Despite this, the LGBT population is still facing all sorts of discrimination in their daily lives, showing that the gay revolution is still incomplete.

During the first Hong Kong Pride Parade, the organizing committee attempted to rent a bus from Citybus to lead the parade, and the application procedure was smooth and unobstructed up until the revelation of our identity as an LGBT organization. Upon understanding this, Citybus demonstrated an abrupt change in attitude, and rejected the application on grounds of not wanting to affect the company’s image. To this unreasonable response, we question, “How does renting a bus to an LGBT organization affect your company’s image?”

This year, legislative council member Raymond Chan was insulted for his sexual orientation by two women while taking the MTR. To be openly discriminated even in such a setting, it is not difficult to imagine or find similar acts of public humiliation in schools or the workplace. If a person can be publicly insulted and attacked simply because of their sexual orientation, it only shows the need for the Pride Parade to go on, and inform sexual minorities that they are not alone.

The Hong Kong Pride Parade is the best opportunity for everyone to stand together to call for LGBT rights and mutual respect in our society.

Previous Hong Kong Pride Parade:

2008    Celebrate Love
Link: http://hkpride.net/2008/tc/
Participation : 1000 people

2009    Be Proud Be Yourself 
Link: http://hkpride.net/2009/tc/news/
Participation : 1800 people

2011    For Queer, For Love, For Equality
Link: http://hkpride.net/2011/tc/
Participation : 2500 people

2012    Dare to Love  
Link: http://hkpride.net/2012/tc/news.php
Participation: 4000 people

2013    We Stand for Love, We Stand for LGBT
Link: http://hkpride.net/2013/tc/
Participation: 5200 people

2014    Stand Up for Diversity
Link: http://www.hkpride.net/2014/tc/home.php
Participation: 8900 people

Organizing Committee of the Hong Kong Pride Parade

Founded in 2008, the organizing committee of the Pride Parade is the sole organizer of the Hong Kong Pride Parade. There are 14 executive board members managing the organizing committee at present.

The organizing committee includes members from Gay Harmony, Women Coalition of HKSAR, Rainbow of Hong Kong and Association for Transgender Rights

http://www.gayhar.org/

http://wchk.org/

http://rainbowhk.org/

https://www.facebook.com/Trans.Right.HK

Your #HKPrideHero

We want to celebrate and showcase the members of LGBT community and people who have contributed in some way to fight for LGBT equalities in Hong Kong. It could be someone whom you think is important to you. It could be someone from your workplace, your best friend, a character, or someone who’s less well-known but who’s important to you or your community.

We want to know who YOUR #HKPrideHero is.

HK Pride Hero Stories

Coco Pop

要成為「同志英雄」，其中一個重要的條件，就是要有強大的心靈力量，依靠這股心靈力量，勇敢做自己，發光發熱，以生命影響生命。Coco Pop就是一個擁有強大心靈力量的變裝皇后(Drag Queen)，用那華麗閃耀的舞台光彩，照耀同志社群。Coco Pop自2000年初開次第一次嘗試變裝，憑著對質素的高要求，精益求精，如今是香港最廣受歡迎的Drag Queen。Coco Pop一直以來，在派對為人送上精彩的演出，自2008年起，每年同志遊行都會貢獻認真演出，絕無欺場。Coco Pop不單娛樂我們的眼睛和耳朵，更為我們保守的香港，在這性別被定型的監牢中，以歌舞打出了一道五光十色的裂縫。

Tomcatt

Tomcatt，自1994年起已籌辦同志組織，到今天，依然努力為同志社群作出貢獻。1994年，香港仍是對同志的歧視和偏見比現在嚴重得多，但Tomcatt勇敢地參與籌組女同志組織「女同苑」，並成為幹事。可以說是香港最早期的女同志團體之一。1998年，她在香港商業電台叱吒903開辦「男男女女」節目，這可以說是香港歷史上首個「打正旗號」以同志議題為主題的電台節目，讓社會人士首次可以在大氣電波當中了解同志社群的文化。當時，是互聯網還沒普及，不少同志都是躲在被窩當中收聽她的節目，接收同志資訊，也是當時同志難得的心靈慰藉。此外，她曾在《新報》Mag Paper 撰寫專欄，是香港第一份同志議題副刋。到如今，Tomcatt依然無私地為同志社群貢獻，每年同志遊行，都會義不容辭擔任大會司儀。Tomcatt絕對是為同志貢獻殊深的「同志英雄」。