Hong Kong to become first Asian host of Gay Games

HONG KONG: Hong Kong will become the first Asian city to host the Gay Games in 2022, with rights campaigners celebrating the winning bid for a city often criticised for lagging on LGBT rights.

Hong Kong beat Mexico’s Guadalajara and Washington DC to host the 11th edition of the event, with the jubilant bid team saying it would attract 15,000 participants and bring HK$1bil (RM525.3mil) into the local economy.

Organised by the LGBT community, the Gay Games features a range of sports and is open to all participants “without regard to sexual orientation, and there are no qualifying standards”, the Hong Kong bid team said in a statement.

Competitors come from many countries, including those where homosexuality remains illegal, it added.

The Gay Games was founded by ex-Olympic decathlete Tom Waddell and first held in San Francisco in 1982. The next edition will be held in Paris in August next year, featuring 36 sports, from mountain biking to fencing and athletics.

Hong Kong’s Pink Alliance, which promotes equal rights for the LGBT community, said the games would “help to bring a wider understanding and acceptance of our community”, not only in the southern Chinese city but throughout the region.

When the constitutional court in Taiwan ruled in favour of allowing gay marriage in May, campaigners in socially conservative Hong Kong highlighted the city’s lack of progress on equality issues.

Hong Kong does not recognise gay marriage and only decriminalised homosexuality in 1991.

But a landmark court decision in September that granted a British lesbian in Hong Kong – known only as “QT” – the right to live and work in the city as a dependant of her long-term partner was hailed as a decision that could reduce more hurdles for same-sex couples.

Hong Kong’s Gay Games bid chair Dennis Philipse said there was a “spirit and passion for increased inclusion and diversity” in Hong Kong.