2022 Gay Games: the man behind Hong Kong’s winning bid to host the event
Dennis Philipse went from being picked last in gym class in his native Holland to bringing the Gay Games to Asia for the first time
Coming out I knew for a long time before I came out that I was gay, or at least that I was different. It was one of the reasons I was always picked last in gym class. I was sporty, but I acted different to the other boys and I had different interests.
I’m from a small village in the south of Holland. I was born in 1972. I have a younger sister and she’s married to her wife and they have two beautiful kids. She only realised she was gay much later in life; she came out about 12 years ago. I came out to my parents when I was 15, and it didn’t go well. I felt lonely. I started to organise my own activities to find a place to fit in. One of these was producing a mini version of the musical Cats. I put together singers, the orchestra and dancers. It kept me busy and distracted me from the world.
I started organising school events with concerts and choirs – back then music was my thing; I was a violinist and I played the piano. When I was 18, I auditioned for music school. Happily they didn’t let me in, even after I tried again the following year, because, looking back, I’m better at organising than performing.
London, Shanghai, Hong Kong When I was 21, I started working for postcard company Boomerang, without finishing university. Then I got into technology and, in 2008, I moved to London. Soon after, one of my bosses asked if I would be interested in moving to China for a secondment with Alibaba (the company that bought the South China Morning Post in 2016). Back then no one had even heard of Alibaba.
I moved to Shanghai in 2010 for a six-week project, which was extended to six months and I ended up staying for a year. After a year, the same job brought me to Hong Kong. In Shanghai, it had been difficult to engage with the local community because a lot of people didn’t speak English, but in Hong Kong there was less of a language barrier and it was easier to connect. In Hong Kong, I fell in love with a guy and we were together for 3½ years. I had started working for a start-up. But when it rains it pours and one day I found myself single and without a job. We had always done things together and I found myself feeling lost and lonely.
Take a hike I had started running the year before we broke up and I loved trail running. I was doing long distance running, up to 70km, and I met some great people. I decided I wanted to find someone sporty. I wasn’t interested in hook-up apps or going to bars, so I thought I would organise a hiking event.