Weather rains on Hong Kong Pride parade but marchers’ call for equality legislation is undimmed
- Focus of the march was call for equal-rights law and gender-neutral facilities
- Present at the parade were LGBT-friendly religious organisations, but also groups opposed to legislation
Despite less than favourable weather, thousands of marchers, decked out in colourful outfits, took to the streets on Saturday for the annual Hong Kong Pride Parade, with the focus being a call for equality legislation and gender-neutral facilities in the city.
With the chosen theme for this year, “Call for the Law, Equality for All”, marchers continued their years-long call for legislation against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and also for more gender-neutral facilities, such as toilets and changing rooms for transgender people. The march this year celebrates its 10th anniversary.
Event organisers had earlier said they expected the record turnout, up from 10,000 in 2017, fuelled by a coming referendum in Taiwan on amending its civil law to allow same-sex marriages.
On the numbers this year, parade spokesman Jimmy Sham Tsz-kit said: “We can see a growing number of people joining the parades, and this is in line with an earlier University of Hong Kong survey which showed that a larger proportion of Hongkongers support equality for LGBTs.”
He said he hoped the government would include gender-neutral facilities in future designs for the city.