( TCJM - Tongzhi Community Joint Meeting)
The Pink Paper Issue 2, December 2014
Chairperson’s Message – John Erni The Christmas season will soon be with us, and we’ll see lots of commotion and celebration. Pink Alliance concludes a challenging but fruitful year. Our activities – most notably Pink Dot, IDAHOT, and more recently Pink Season – continue to chart new paths to build more allies in the community, further opening up more spaces for community support and mutual understanding. Our advocacy activities, including our participation in both local EOC-‐led consultation and international UN committee work, have raised our own awareness of the long struggles ahead of us to bring about social, political, and cultural recognition of LGBT lives in and beyond Hong Kong. This has also been a year in which we have seen more and varied support of our work from many organizations and individuals. To our supporters and sponsors, we send our heartfelt gratitude and holiday greetings. Here’s to a prosperously queer 2015!
DO YOU WANT TO DO SOMETHING FOR THE LGBTI COMMUNITY? JOIN US AS A VOLUNTEER. CONTACT OUR VOLUNTEER OFFICER AT volunteer@tcjm.org
WHAT HAVE WE DONE RECENTLY PINK SEASON This year’s Pink Season ran from September to November and was bigger than ever. Co-‐ Directors Betty Grisoni and Abby Lee set the theme this year as ‘Pink Plus’, and widened the earlier scope of the season to expand the number and type of sporting events and to add food and beverage participants to the list of attractions. An estimated 7,500 people attended the 85 arts and culture, sports and wellness and social events.
Gordon Wong as Arts and Culture Officer found eleven events to include in the Season, including some celebrities: American writer and satirist David Sedaris appeared in ‘Story Worthy Week’ and Australian photographer Laura Simonsen showed her exhibition ‘Family’. With the help of the US Consulate-‐General, American producers Charles Ignacio and John Catania screened two of their films: The Lady in Question is Charles Busch, about the most famous female impersonator in the US, and In the Life, a look back at the figures and issues involved in the struggles for LGBT equality in Hong Kong in the 1990s.
In This Life The Lady in Question is Charles Busch
The musical Mamma Mia showing at the APA was also listed in this year’s season.
MAMMA MIA One notable arts event included for the first time this year was the Art Factory held on 16 October at Azure. This featured the work of 16 artists and was sponsored by Absolut Vodka, to whom, with Azure, our hosts, we are most grateful.
Art Factory in Azure, LKF Hotel Central
This year, Barclays sponsored our Sports Weekend at Li Po Chun World College, Ma On Shan, where Dennis Philipse and his team coordinated a series of sports events, including tennis, volleyball, football and bubble soccer. Dennis, who runs Out in Hong Kong, coordinated all the 21 sports events coordinated in the Season. This was his first year with Pink Alliance and we are very grateful for his contribution. The Season culminated in the annual Out in the Open party, held this year on the beach at Shek O, run as usual by Eric Herrera, who was joined this year as Co-‐Director by Darrick Sampson. The financial advisers Infinity sponsored the event, as they are doing for many of our activities, and we are most grateful to them for their help.
Dennis Philipse
Pink Season Sports Event
Betty Grisoni with Andrew McFarland and Colin Dunlop from Barclays
Happy Cow provided Gluten Free Ice Cream for Pink Season Sports Weekend
The Pink Season would not have been possible without the energy and drive of Eric Herrera in raising funds to pay for it and of Dickson Lau who found the volunteer manpower to run it. We are very grateful to them both.
Out in the Open
Eric Herrera
Darrick Sampson Dickson Lau and Friends
Yoga by the Beach
Infinity Sponsor for OITO 2014
Kinman Wong serenaded the crowd
LOBBYING THE UNITED NATIONS IN REGARD TO THE CONVENTION ON THE ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN
Joanne Leung, Vice Chairperson
Our Vice Chairperson, Joanne Leung, and QSA’s Geoffrey Yeung travelled to Geneva to represent the PA at the United Nations CEDAW formal review session in October, to lobby about the lack of legislation in Hong Kong to outlaw discrimination against LGBT women, and in particular to take up the issue of the Hong Kong government’s imposition of enforced full-‐scale sterilisation and construction surgery as the requirement for the grant of recognition of acquired gender. Our aims were only partially achieved, as the Committee did not include the latter issue in its Concluding Observations, it was thought by our delegation
due to the fact that Hong Kong had to share the review process with Mainland China. The Committee seems to have given issues raised by their NGOs greater priority. Nevertheless, our participation was a first and our concerns received a public airing in Geneva and this is the first time that the CEDAW Committee has included LGBT issues in their Concluding Observations.
Geoffrey Yeung, QSA
PRIDE PARADE A group of volunteers from the PA marched under our own banner in Hong Kong’s Pride parade on 7 November. CHINA LGBT FORUM Our Vice Chairperson, Joanne Leung, travelled to Beijing in November to represent the PA at the China LGBT Forum. Unfortunately, the meeting was cancelled at last minute due to pressure from the Chinese government.
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY Our Campaign Officer, Dickson Lau and a small team represented the PA by running a stall at the International Human Rights Day fair at Paterson Street in Causeway Bay on Saturday 6 December. Dickson Lau, Medeline Mok and Nigel Collett
ADVOCACY Our Advocacy Group participated in the Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC)’s consultative review of anti-‐discrimination legislation and attended the three public forums held by the EOC. We have made submissions this period to the EOC on the same subject. Our advocacy volunteers also lobbied Legislative Council (Legco) members and officials over the attempt by the Government to introduce a bill only allowing marriage to male and female transgendered who have undergone the full range of surgery. The bill was defeated in Legco and the issue has gone back to an Inter Departmental Working Group (IDWG) for reconsideration.
COMMUNITY BUSINESS DIVERSITY CONFERENCE Brian Yeung represented the Pink Alliance at Community Business's diversity conference in November. OUT ON THE STREET
Several members of the Pink Alliance attended Todd Sears's Out on the Street business diversity leadership conference in Hong Kong in December, including Billy Leung and Henness Wong.
‘I AM ME’ VIDEOS -‐ AN OFFICIAL SELECTION FOR SCREENING AT 2014 BEIJING QUEER FILM FESTIVAL
Film Poster – ‘I Am Me’ All eight short videos of the I Am Me campaign produced by Pink Alliance were selected for screening on 19-‐21 September at the prestigious Beijing Queer Film Festival (http://www.bjqff.com/). There were two screenings that took place first at the Netherlands Embassy and Consulate in Beijing, and then at NYU Shanghai in November. The events, which attracted over 100 people, were covered in Gayspot Magazine and Dan Lan. The I AM ME video advocacy project, coordinated by John Erni and directed by Eric Tsang, aims to arouse public concern about the bullying of school students because of their sexual orientation and gender identity through the use of individually created videos to inspire confidence and provide support to our viewers. It is also expected to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students in accepting their own identities. It was generously supported by AD Media, FINS, Mr. Gay HK, and Nomura. Since the launch in April 2013, the videos have been shown in schools and universities in Hong Kong. The screenings and discussions have attracted a combined audience of over 1,000 students and teachers. One of the videos even won an award in a local microfilm festival. Pink Alliance is making plans to produce a new batch of I Am Me videos in the near future. All of the videos can be seen here: http://pinkalliance.hk/projects/iamme/ .
WHAT WE ARE ABOUT TO DO ADVOCACY Our Advocacy Group will be contributing a submission to the Hong Kong government for the Chief Executive’s policy address, due on 15 January 2015. It will also be submitting our views on transgender issues to the IDWG. IDAHOT Our Vice Chairperson, Joanne Leung, will head up our contribution to the IDAHOT commemoration in May 2015 and will be calling this month for a meeting of all LGBTI groups interested in participating. PINK DOT
COMMUNITY BUSINESS LGBT WORKPLACE INCLUSION INDEX
Our ally, NGO Community Business, has just released details of its new LGBT business index (see detail at: http://www.communitybusines s.org/hklgbtindex/). Over the next few months, we shall be doing what we can to support the launch of this important index, which will open up to the world Hong Kong’s current commercial practices, good and bad, and will help foster good diversity practices across a growing segment of Hong Kong’s business.
Planning has commenced for 2015’s Pink Dot, which we hope will again be a collaboration between Big Love Alliance, the PA and other groups. Current thinking has the event earmarked for April, when the weather will still be cool. Details will follow as soon as possible.
THE PINK EXPERIENCE The PA has launched a volunteer training programme entitled Pink Experience (PE). Headed by Coordinator Michael Lee, PE will aim to select and train a group of about 16 volunteers over the age of 18 every year, starting in February and March 2015 and intended to provide volunteers for the ensuing Pink Dot. The programme will be free (though we shall ask for a HK$500 deposit refundable on completion of the training) and will include a residential weekend at Stanley run between 13 and 15 March, video training 21-‐22 March and community service 28-‐29 March. Selection will take place between 25 February and 4 March. The volunteers will be divided into about 4 groups, each with a leader appointed by the PA. The programme will be bilingual. If you would like to join the programme either as a volunteer or Group Leader, please contact Michael Lee at: michaelaiahk@gmail.com OUR PEOPLE We are very proud that Geoffrey Yeung, QSA’s representative to the PACC, has won a Rhodes Scholarship to study Human Rights at Oxford in 2015. Congratulations, Geoffrey!
We are sad to announce the departure from the PA and from Hong Kong of Dr Sam Winter, who for many years has been Hong Kong’s leading advocate of transgender rights. Sam is leaving his post of over 30 years at Hong Kong University and taking up a new post in the School of Public Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. We thank him for all he has done for the community and wish him well in We have a new Joint Fund Raising Officer. Philip Howell-‐Williams has joined Eric Herrera in this role to solicit your money!
WEBSITE Our IT Officer, James Oliver has revised the layout and content of the PA’s website. Check it out at http://pinkalliance.hk/. The site now has a mass of information, not only about us, but also about many aspects of Hong Kong’s LGBT history and culture. We would like to pay tribute here to our summer intern, Jacky Ng, who did most of the work on revising this content and has, we think, done a first class job. DONATIONS We rely totally on voluntary contributions to fund us, so please help us if you can. If you would like to contribute funds, please make a direct transfer to the TCJM bank account: Name of Bank: HSBC Account Number: 112-‐194386-‐001 Account Name: Tongzhi Community Joint Meeting Please email our Treasurer, Barry Lee, at donate@tcjm.org with your name (or nickname), date of transfer, donated amount and receipt number. We shall send you an acknowledgement as soon as the TCJM account is updated. COMMENTS
We’d welcome feedback, comments and suggestions. You can email Nigel Collett, Editor and English Secretary at nigel.a.collett@tcjm.org All of us in the Pink Alliance wish all of you and your loved ones a very happy Christmas. May 2015 be a year in which we can all make a difference