“We are Queer, We are Fabulous” The First Migrant Pride Parade in Hong Kong

“We are here, we are queer, we are fabulous and we know it!”

Last Sunday (November 8) afternoon, hundreds of migrant domestic workers marched around the City Hall and Chater Road in Central to call for stopping discrimination to sexual minorities. The demonstration was initiated by the several Filipino migrant worker organizations , including GABRIELA HK, filguys association's GABRIELA HK and Filipino lesbians organization . Ian, Vice chairperson for Campaign of GABRIELA HK, said she have been participated in the Pride Parade hold by some Hong Kong organizations in the past 3 years, but many migrants who support sexual minorities were not able to join since they only have holidays on Sunday. (The Hong Kong Pride Parade has been taking place on Saturday.) Therefore, they arranged this Sunday Migrant Pride this year.

(the march team call people to stop discrimination)

Gabriela is an organization of Filipino grassroot women. In 1984, over 10 thousands of women marched in Philippines to fight against dictatorship. Thereafter, activists established Gabriela, the name of which was a salute to Gabriela Silang, a woman activist leader resisting Spain's colonization of Philippines.

Sheila, the chairperson of Gabriela HK , explained that there had been Filipino migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong much earlier, and many of them were members of Gabriela. In 2004, Gabriela HK started to crystallize since Filipino migrant workers brought out movements to deal with the lack of suffrage of migrant workers. In 2007, in order to support electoral campaign of GABRIELA Women Partylist in the Congress, the Gabriela HK was established, with solicitation of new members to urge voting. Eventually they occupied 3 seats in the council, being able to speak for local and foreign women in the council.

(before the march, people dance one billion rising)

Now there are 5 member organizations in Gabriela, including Gabriela HK Bank , FILWOM ( Filipino Migrant Women organization ), WOPIC Antique (Women from Philippines Independent Church), FILO HK ( Filipino Lesbian Organization HK), and Filguys Association. The last two are LGBT organization.

Homosexuality is still a taboo in migrant worker community. When asked whether non-LGBT organizations in Gabriela can stay with the two LGBT organizations in harmony, Sheila said the other 3 organizations also accept LGBT, since they think that LGBTs and other women both experience discrimination, and have common issues.

(different organization come and join the parade)

The parade's theme was to oppose all harms to sexual minorities, and Gabriela did not only concern about women and homosexuality. In October 2014, a Filipino transsexual named Jennifer Laude was murdered. Gabriela mourned her death by holding an anniversary of the incident. As Sheila point out, although some progressive organizations would call justice for Jennifer, people in Philippines are still rejecting transsexual. Some even condemned Jennifer for her feminine dressing, saw her as lying, thought of her death as deserved.

Discrimination is a difficulty homosexual migrants would face when they go back to their home country. In Hong Kong, due to the lack of family fetters, they have relatively more freedom to come out and stay with their same-sex partner. Yet, they would immediately face pressure from family once they go back to Philippines. As Ian recalled, a member of FILGUYS was forced to marry and give birth to 3 children. When she arrived to Hong Kong for working, she eventually could come out and could luckily fall in love with a same-sex partner. However, when she told the truth to her family in Philippines, her family failed to accept it, and left her alone.

As Ian mentioned, when she got in touch with other lesbian migrants, some of them thought that it is enough to be accepted merely by themselves, so that they refuse to join the movement. Some Filipino families would even force the homosexual migrant workers to be heterosexual by harming their bodies. Ian hold that homosexuality is not just a personal problem, so that migrants should not only be self-accepted, but also socially accepted, or otherwise they would not be able to maintain themselves when they go home.

Hong Kong is freer to migrant workers only because it is far from their home country, but not because Hong Kong people are more LGBT-friendly. Employers often refuse to hire those who look like homosexual. Ian point out that some migrants would keep their long hair unwillingly to obtain a work-contract. Due to her short hair, Ian had also been rejected by Hong Kong employer. “This is totally unacceptable for me.” However, she doesn't want to hide her sexual orientation. “I would state clearly that I am lesbian, I have same-sex partner.” Luckily she met an open-minded employer. Her employer supports her sexual orientation and participation in organization. Her boss encouraged her to join the Hong Kong Pride Parade on November 7 after knowing its existence. “If they were not busy, they would also join today's event.”

(Ian show their message)

Some Hong Kong people also joined last Sunday's parade. Grassroot Queer Concern Group, a local organization, joined the event and gave a speech supporting it. As the group mentioned, they talked with migrants came from different places in the past few months, and discovered that while some employers did not mind migrant's sexual orientation, some would fire homosexual migrants once discovered their sexual orientation, since they scared that their daughter would become homosexual. The group thought that when the daughters “see the sister working at their home dating with a girl, falling in love with girls, in fact they are given precious opportunities to broaden their horizon, to know there are so many more people of different kinds. It is good to let little girls learn how to respect different people.”

(grassroot queer concern group give speech to supprot)