Hong Kong has beaten finalists Guadalajara and Washington DC to become the 2022 host of the Gay Games.
It will be the first time the LGBT+ sporting and cultural event will take place in an Asian country in the Games’ 35 year history.
The news was announced in Paris this week after a team of inspectors from Australia, Germany, Canada and the USA toured the finalist cities in June and July this year.
“The impact that the Gay Games has in host cities is incredible in terms of culture, sport, economic impact, history and most importantly elevating all matters of LGBT+ equality,” the organisation said in a statement.
There are hopes that the event—which is expected to attract 15,000 athletes and 40,000 visitors to Hong Kong—will help to improve LGBT+ rights.
“This is a big step forward for Hong Kong itself to be able to win this world game ... and it is also a big step for diversity inclusion,” said Alfred Chan, chairman of Hong Kong’s Equal Opportunities Commission, which supported the bid.
Homosexuality has been legal in Hong Kong since 1991 but the LGBT+ community is still not protected by anti-discrimination laws and same-sex couples are not able to marry. In mainland China, same-sex sexual activity was decriminalised in 1997 but homosexuality was still classified as a mental disorder as recently as 2001.
Openly gay Hong Kong parliamentarian Chi Chuen Ray Chan has praised the organisers’ decision but warned that Hong Kong still has a long way to go to achieve LGBT+ equality.
“Hong Kong is deeply honoured, but should recognise that much work on protecting and empowering the LGBT community needs to be done,” Chan writes on Medium.
“I think winning the Gay Games will be an opportune push for the Government to speed up its work on improving the human rights of Hong Kong’s LGBT citizens, who only wish to be respected, protected, treated as equal members of society.”
He added that Hong Kong needs specific laws designed to protect the LGBT+ community including, “the rights to allow their foreign dependents to stay in Hong Kong, to enjoy rights to hospital visitation, claim LGBT partner’s cremation remains, and enjoy public housing as a household, to name just a few.”
Chan says improved gender recognition processes and laws that prohibit LGBT+ discrimination should be government priorities.
Alfred Chan Cheung-ming, chairman of the Equal Opportunities Commission, which backed the bid, said in a statement: “The EOC believes that it is another important step in promoting equality and better understanding of LGBTI people in Hong Kong and across Asia.”
Australia hosted the Gay Games in Sydney in 2002. Next year, the event will be held in Paris.
