Hong Kong’s LGBT supporters rally in Central, calling for city to follow Taiwan’s example on same-sex marriage
- Demonstrators – some holding rainbow balloons and dressed in wedding attire – cheer landmark victory on self-ruled island
- But city’s first openly gay lawmaker says Hong Kong still has a long way to go
Hong Kong’s LGBT supporters gathered on Saturday to call for equal marriage rights as they celebrated Taiwan becoming the first place in Asia to legalise unions.
Dozens of demonstrators – some holding rainbow balloons or dressed in wedding attire – rallied at Edinburgh Place in Central in an event organised by the Big Love Alliance and cheered last week’s landmark victory for gay rights in the self-ruled island.
But Raymond Chan Chi-chuen, the city’s first openly gay lawmaker, said Hong Kong still had a long way to go before it could follow Taiwan in revising the current law, which defines marriage as “a voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of others”.
“The government even tramples on basic human rights in Hong Kong. The government, of course, will take no notice of the equal rights of minorities,” Chan said at the rally.
“But it doesn’t mean that there is nothing we can do.”
