Gay activists are to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival on June 18 as the first ever gay pride day in Hong Kong.
Organisers will designate the public holiday this year as Tongzhi Day as part of a two-week series of parties, seminars and film screenings on gay and alternative culture in Hong Kong starting on Saturday.
Tongzhi is the Cantonese word for comrade which has come to mean gays and lesbians.
Organiser Roddy Shaw Kwok-wah said the Dragon Boat Festival was chosen because it celebrated the Chu dynasty poet and patriot Qu Yuan, whose works were among the first to address homosexual themes.
'Traditional folklore attributed Qu's self-sacrifice to his love of country, but there has been a well-established literary theory that argues he was really driven by his love for the emperor,' Mr Shaw said.
However, there would be no public parade on Tongzhi Day, Mr Shaw said, and most key activities would take place on other days in the next two weeks.