Words: James Gannaban

I almost always fail at my New Year’s resolutions. I’ve aimed at everything imaginable to improve myself, including:

- Spend less
- Travel more
- Eat less hot pot
- Drink more sensibly
- Exercise more regularly
- Call my mum more often
- Etc.

I set my goals too high – that’s the problem. Like, how am I meant to “exercise more regularly” when the most “exercise” I ever do is lift my cocktail glass 15 reps, 20 sets every weekend? Ordinarily, that’s something that any human being should be proud of. Such extraordinary stamina! Such courage and determination! Except I’ve got nothing to show for it than a thinner bank balance and a fatter belly. Such stupidity!

So this year, I’ve decided to commit to just one New Year’s resolution:

Become A Hotter Version of Myself by Summer.

OK, who hasn’t made variations on that same resolution year after year? I always plan on being swimsuit-ready in time for Floatilla. Except my lack of self-discipline gets in the way. What annoys me, too, is my ability to justify my shocking figure. Like, I could take on the persona of a prissy princess:

“I’m sooo not a circuit-party-muscle-boy. My largest muscle is my brain. My brain cells do more than just track bench reps, ew.”

That would be fine – except honestly, I’d rather be Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge than Beatrice, Princess of York.

Or I could take on the persona of a “Regular Joe.” To conceal my insecurity over my underwhelming regular-ness, I’d be required to heap overly generous compliments on gay boys with ridiculously perfect bodies. I’d then proceed to turn green and barf.

The third approach is my most frequent go-to. I just drink myself silly and promptly pass out so that the endless parade of perfect bodies need not taunt me. It works. Everyone leaves me alone. Next thing I know, we’re back on dry land and everyone’s wearing clothes again. Hooray!

But this year, I’m bound to make good on my resolution. I’ve stumbled across a diet that allows me to eat whatever I want, as much as I want. I just need to swallow two spoonfuls of sauerkraut before bedtime. Sauerkraut is as appetizing as the rancid jockstraps of an entire football team. You either love it or hate it. Regardless, it flushes everything away in the morning.

I’ve lost 2.5 kilos in a month on my sauerkraut diet, despite the barrage of holiday pig-outs. That’s a lot, especially for someone whose entire body is a stubborn mass of adipose tissue.

I knew I was making progress when, after a particularly trashy night of partying, I collapsed into a cha chaan teng to shamelessly stuff my face with braised beef tendon noodles. I felt eyes boring into the back of my head, so I turned to look.

“I’d fuck you,” he said.

Tall. Broad shoulders hunched over the low table. Greasy mop of ash blonde hair. Insanely toned forearms. Large, droopy eyes. His name is Adam, he said. 29 years old, drummer, Brit.

“All the other girls…” he continued, but I was hardly listening! My New Year’s resolution must be in effect, already! I have become a hotter version of myself, and we’re still a long way to go before summer! My self-esteem shot up into the stratosphere!

“All the other girls… they’re expensive!”

Ah.

It wasn’t even the mention of money, or the fact that I wasn’t charging Adam any (yet), that got me off The Cockpit mere seconds after I had happily jumped into it.

It wasn’t really me you wanted, Adam.

It was my “twin sister,” Fabiola.
Happy New Year!

- James Gannaban is Asia’s Most Hyperactive Gay Boy™. Find him on http://jamesgannaban.blogspot.com/

Words: James Gannaban
2AM

My dear friend Joseph Chan, half of the partnership behind Volume Concepts, is keeping me from leaving his tapas bar. We’re brainstorming fun promotion ideas for Volume’s VIPs.

Joseph: Let Chris sleep and hug his pillow. I rarely get to speak with you alone!

(A guy walks in, 28-30 years old, slender, about 6 feet, gweilo, reasonably attractive.)

Guy: Hey! Can I get a drink?

Joseph: Darling, we’re closed. Let me call Volume Beat to check if they’re still open.

Guy: Where’s that?

Me: 62 Jervois Street.

Guy: Yeah, where’s that?

(Joseph hands Guy a Volume BEAT shop card. Guy looks at map at the back of the card.)

Guy: This map is shit.

(I grab a copy of Dim Sum Magazine with Mr Gay HK 2011 Jimmy Wong on the cover.)

Me: The address is on this magazine. Keep it. We’re at the corner of Aberdeen and Hollywood. Keep walking down Aberdeen ‘til you hit Queen’s. Look out for the stoplight at the junction. Jervois is on the way down. Find number 62. Left side of the street. That’s it.

Joseph: Just called up Beat; they’re now closed, too.

Guy: I had a fucking great day at work. I wanna party. Where can I go?

Me: Home. It’s 2AM on a Tuesday night. Everywhere’s closed.

Joseph: I’ll make you one drink. What do you want?

Guy: Black Sambuca. Who’s that guy (points at Jimmy’s photo).

Me: Jimmy Wong. Mr Gay HK.

Guy: I can do that, too. I can be in that magazine. I look better than that guy. I’ve got an 8-pack. Wanna see?

Joseph: (shrugs) James, you wanna see?

Me: I only wanna see if I can take a photo for my blog. Otherwise, what’s the point.

Joseph: Can he take a photo for his blog?

Guy: Yeah. But we gotta do it in the loo. Where’s the loo?

Joseph: Just down that corner.

(Guy is twatted and can hardly stand up. Joseph helps him up and walks him to the loo. After a few minutes…)

Joseph: You always ask guys to touch your bum while you pee?

Guy: No. I’m not gay.

Joseph: Bisexual?

Guy: Bi-curious. Sorry, haven’t got my wits about me. You got some coke? I’m being very direct (laughs).

Me: No, I don’t. It’s a Tuesday night. Go home.

Guy: I wanna have a wank.

Me: When?

Guy: Now. Let’s all go to the loo now, get naked, wank.

Joseph: James, wanna go with him?

Me: No. What’s the point if I can’t take a photo for my blog?

Joseph: Will you let James take a photo of you for his blog?

Guy: If we go to the loo.

Me: No. Here. Do it here. I don’t feel like moving.

Guy: I gotta go pee…

(Guy gets up, but barely. He stumbles towards the loo. Joseph and I stay in place.)

Joseph: You have to write about this.

Me: Only if I get a photo to go with my story.

It’s Christmas. Everyone’s allowed to have a bit of fun. And ‘tis the season of giving. So Joseph and I decided to let the guy go with a shred of dignity intact. He shall remain nameless, although he did leave us his business card… He was flying in The Cockpit. And we were right along with him for the ride.

Happy Holidays, dear friends!

James Gannaban is Asia’s Most Hyperactive Gay Boy™. Find him on http://jamesgannaban.blogspot.com/

Words: James Gannaban,, Photo: Frankie To
“Taking an iPhone from your mobile service provider is worse than having a crappy marriage. Your provider offers you a new iPhone – if you sign a two-year extension on your contract. If you lose your phone, you need to extend your contract two more years.” – Joe Lam

I’ve lost my iPhone twice this year. Of course I didn’t know until too late that there are such things as “Spy Apps” which enable you to track your iPhone; or that it’s actually quite easy and cheap to purchase iPhone insurance from any number of banks.

OK, what I really wanna say is: Apple should consider Mr Gay HK as the perfect platform from which to communicate with the legions of Apple fans within the LGBT community! MGHK is current and media savvy. The LGBT community is known to be early adapters of technology. We’re always ahead of the curve. Plus, practically every gay man is hopelessly addicted to Grindr. And finally, with the number of iPhones I stand to lose throughout my lifetime, I would have purchased the equivalent of a multi-year Apple sponsorship for MGHK, anyway!

Alas, internet hysteria alone over Apple products trumps any other sort of marketing campaign – so what value could a small LGBT unit like MGHK have for Apple? That’s for MGHK to propose and for Apple to consider!

What I do know for certain, though, is the magnanimity of two brands that have been with us since 2009, when I started MGHK with my dear friend, Noel Furrer. Thanks in large part to Dim Sum Magazine for the valuable ad space and for the winner’s prize contribution. Plus – Hello! – how many more The Cockpit’s am I allowed to write about MGHK, only DS publisher Joe Lam can tell! Much love to DS for having been an indispensable partner towards creating the MGHK image in the critical first three years.

Speaking of image, Paul Gerrard has been making the candidates and winners look their best for three years, now. We could not have asked for better people than Robin (hair) and Lizzie (make-up) to look after us; they are peerless professionals who are simply at the top of their game.

This year, ace photographer Frankie To offered us his services. What we got was more than sjust a photographer. Frankie and his husband, Don, were like big brothers to the candidates – not to mention the perfect role models for gay marriage! I almost died when one of my boys accidentally stained Frankie’s brand-new white trainers with dark cream foundation. When I sheepishly asked Frankie to please send me the cleaning bill, he told me not to worry.

Marisa Zeman of Nude is Rude, Yos Yunos of Daigo and Hong of Gentleman’s Agreement have all shared their creative input towards creating a cohesive and unique look for each of the MGHK finalists this year. Many thanks.

A new app for the LGBT community will soon be launched by Pink Dollar Technologies. Pink Dollar Tech’s Paul Ramscar has sponsored entertainment for the MGHK 2011 Grand Finale, and the dancers were fabulous. Three costume changes throughout the show!

You’re only as good as the impression you make. And so last but not least, big thanks to our venue partners, Volume H.E.A.T. and Bisous.

It takes a lot of courage, imagination and foresight to invest into the local LGBT community. The “Pink Dollar” is largely still a new idea in Hong Kong. In certain parts of Europe and the Americas, the infamously “disposable” nature of the Pink Dollar now talks even louder than the deflating greenback.

We will get there, too. It’s a short matter of time. There’s a palpable increase of support from more boutique brands and independent business owners year on year, and that’s so awesome.

To our brave partners who gamely jumped aboard The Cockpit of the Mr Gay Hong Kong aircraft, a heartfelt “Thank you” for flying with us. Onward!start drinking earlier in the day!

James Gannaban is Asia’s Most Hyperactive Gay Boy™.
Find him on http://jamesgannaban.blogspot.com

Words: James Gannaban

I’d laugh when watching Imelda Marcos wax philosophical about the infinite virtue of beauty – why she demanded it, surrounded herself with it, even became addicted to it. She seemed completely deranged. Poverty was shocking. Filipinos were practically expiring like bad group buying vouchers – way before group buying became all the rage, natch – whilst Imelda and her husband (the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos) allegedly looted the country’s coffers. Stealing is so ghetto, honestly! But some of the Marcos’ supporters argued that at least the money stolen went towards Imelda’s beautification projects – more than what could be said about less suave politicos who simply stole, full stop. One such project of Imelda’s was the ill-fated Manila Film Centre which is believed to be haunted by the souls of 169 workers who were buried under quick-drying wet cement during its construction. I’ve seen the Film Centre; it’s decrepit, honestly! Imelda should have just bought more shoes, which, if the Philippine Government put up for auction today, might be worth more than the unstable piece of reclaimed land that the Film Centre stands on. Now, wouldn’t that be a real triumph of fund raising?

But Imelda is yesterday’s news, if we’re gonna talk about beauty. Mr Gay Hong Kong is today’s. I always get asked why I put it up, what’s the purpose, what becomes of the winner, blah blah blah.

I could talk endlessly about my genuine belief in “world peace,” because world peace rocks, honestly. There are few ideals more lofty than that. For starters, I would love it if the fat loser who kept shouting “FAGGOTS!” at us from the next junk boat last Sunday instantly died from a giant hemorrhoid. Wouldn’t just that be a perfect illustration of the supremacy of irony? But that would be an ugly urge on my part, hence I refuse to give in to it. I’ll simply think about him witheringly from my moral high ground and feel infinite pity for the loser he is.

Thing is, who likes getting stuck with anything ugly? Definitely not me. I am dismayed at the ugly belly I’m developing as the result of my unbridled char siu consumption, so I’m choosing to focus on nicer things about me, instead, like… oh, I don’t know! My eyes?

Beauty gets you through the door. People are attracted to beautiful people. Imelda figured that out early on in life. I figured that out early, too. I was 17 and fat – 200 pounds, a 40-inch waistline, a face riddled with oily acne. Worst of all, I had just finally admitted to myself that I’m homosexual – and I couldn’t get any dates as long as I was ugly! So I started rehabbing myself, one physical flaw at a time. The skin got fixed, then the teeth, then the flabs. Self-esteem developed as a natural function of looking and feeling healthier, and that’s how I’ve become the confident, hyperactive and entitled gay man I am today.

And I like seeing that in my boys, the candidates of Mr Gay Hong Kong 2011. Edmund, Bridge, Jimmy and Ricky. They are the beautiful, courageous men who have had the courage to sign up for what possibly might be the worst platform, if you’re a gay man who is looking to not be criticized for your looks – of all things!

Words: James Gannaban

Singapore rocks, honestly.

OK, so same-sex sexual activity is illegal between men only – why, I don’t know. In 2007, oral and anal sex were legalised for heterosexuals and female homosexuals. But homosexual men who engage in shocking behaviour, such as blowjobs or bumfun, may be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years, for “acts of gross indecency.” I mean, who in the world is silly enough to complain to the cops that they got their cock sucked? In my books, you say “Thank you,” instead, for such a lovely gesture. It’s only good manners.

Thank goodness the law doesn’t generally seem to be enforced. I mean – duh! The city is crawling with homosexuals! And I highly doubt that Singapore’s over-exercised gay male populace, all attired in what seems to be the de rigueur Singapore gay uniform of super-tight Topman tee and super-short shorts in a bold colour (electric blue, fire-engine red, or plain pink), are celibate! I mean, these boys obviously work on their muscles just as hard as they do on their careers. And why not. We live in a Grindr world, after all. There’s the stock market, and then there’s the meat market. And Grindr has become the most valid tool through which we measure our worth in the meat market. No abs, no glory.

I was lucky enough to have been introduced to gay Singapore’s Drag Queen Bee, Bernice. Bernice is as big a celebrity as one gets in the local LGBT scene. As long as we were with Bernice, we were chauffeured in Mercedes-Benz limousines, we zoomed to the front of every queue, and we graciously accepted waivers of every club’s door charge. “I take care of my guests,” she said. Her generosity is astounding. That’s just the way she rolls – all the while doing a fab job of working the crowd whilst balanced on stratospheric Louboutins, with a perpetually filled flute of Moet.

“Do you swallow?” is Bernice’s way of introducing herself to people. Clearly, just “Top or Bottom?” doesn’t do it for the Queen Bee, because her follow-up question is: “Do you trim?” And that’s fair, honestly, because if you want to have visitors “down there,” the house needs to be clean. When I grow up, I wanna be like Bernice.

So Superstar Sunday was spent at mega-club Zirca, where there’s an escalator leading up to the upper level. Since we were with Bernice, we were given the equivalent of a small kingdom in the VIP area. We were plied with champagne, and honestly, we were super grateful. But soon enough it became obvious that we were not meant for such fineries; it didn’t take long before we were swigging champagne straight from the bottle. Hey, it was either champagne or ginormous jugs of vodka cranberry, with only four drops of vodka in it! This is Singapore, after all, and alcohol serves are tightly calibrated. So we stuck with champagne, natch.

The main draw of Superstar Sunday is DJ George Leong, who is a dish. Talented, check. Amazing handling of the crowd, check. Good looks and abs, check, check. In fact, he took his top off at around 2am to give the addled masses even more reason to worship. He did the rest of his set in topless glory. He is a hybrid DJ-slash-gigolo. What more can you ask for?

Oh, and Zirca brought the house down with confetti showers AND with featured Grindr profile-of-the-minute on the huge LED screen. Sweet. It was feel-good all around.

For a place where blowjobs and bumfun between consenting men are illegal, Singapore’s pretty happening for homos. It looks like Singapore is Singa-bore No More.

And with cheap flights daily, all it takes to get there is just a quick hop on The Cockpit. Zoom, zoom, zoom!girls or boys?!” which adds to the element of fun while you knowingly raise your eyebrows to your partner and roll your eyeballs.

James Gannaban is Asia’s Most Hyperactive Gay Boy™. Find him on http://jamesgannaban.blogspot.com/

Words: James Gannaban

Volume has a special place in my heart. Literally. I met my boyfriend, Chris, in Volume four years ago. It was a rainy night in June.

He was perched with one elbow on the bar counter, flashing me a crazy smile across the club. What’s a horny, hyperactive gay boy to do? I pretended to go to the loo, of course, so I could walk by him and say hello.

Chris and I had actually been introduced the previous night by a mutual friend, Peter, but Chris was obviously busy looking for somebody else and so he snubbed me. What a quick turnaround, I thought, now that he’s giving me “the look.”

“Hello. I’m James,” I said. I have never been the shy type. “We met last night, didn’t we?”

With gay boys, it never really just stops at hello.

Chris had been in Hong Kong barely a month and was still in the process of looking for a flat. In the meantime, he was staying with a gay couple – old friends of his from Australia – until he found a suitable flat. The couple happened to be overseas at that time, so Chris had the place to himself. Perfect. It meant I didn’t have to go home to my cramped walk-up in Yau Ma Tei and risk getting a cold from the rain, because I could conveniently crash at his friends’ snobbish flat on Robinson Road.

But his friends arrived a day earlier than scheduled. I heard voices whilst I was taking a shower the next morning. And I had forgotten to take a towel into the bathroom with me. I had to open the door slightly and meekly ask for a towel whilst the boys were having breakfast. Yes, I had to do the Walk of Shame indoors even before I expected to do my Walk of Shame in broad daylight.

The rest, as they say, is history. I have practically become part of Volume’s furniture ever since, especially on free vodka Wednesday nights. (I’m cheap.) Joseph and Evan, Volume’s affable owners, have taken incredible care of Chris and me. Joseph has arranged intimate champagne tête-à-têtes during the time Chris and I weren’t quite sure yet if we’d become a couple or not. Gay boys are so fucking complicated! Evan, meanwhile, has enlisted me as a singer on Volume’s inaugural Club Anthems Asia album. My “twin sister,” Fabiola, made her debut in Volume.

When I asked Evan to describe Volume in three words, this was his succinct reply:

“Fun, friendship, and the occasional fuck.”

Brilliant.

Volume, I can’t wait for the re-invention.

Words: James Soo

Here’s something I didn’t know – partners of gay professionals are being handed ‘extended visitor’s visas’ by Hong Kong Immigration in an effort to attract and retain qualified and competent expat workers. Of course there are all sorts of provisos to this: for a start your partner is not automatically entitled to the visa, every visa is granted on a case-by-case basis and it does not entitle them to work here. In fact it is little more than an extended tourist visa and has to be renewed every six months. This ‘de facto relationship visa’, as it is also known, is only extended to those whose partners have a working visa in Hong Kong and the couple has to stay together (although how this is policed is anyone’s guess – presumably you have to be living together). But the non-working partner is not entitled to an ID card, is not allowed to work, doesn’t qualify for permanent residency – the only benefit seems to be that they don’t need to make a visa run as they can renew the visa while in Hong Kong.

Apparently they are handed out quite regularly but I suppose the reason why I haven’t heard of them is because they are functionally useless. What’s the point of giving an indefinite tourist visa? What happens when one partner has legally worked here for 7 years and is then entitled to permanent residency? They can’t get married so one partner remains in a kind of limbo. The partner could in principle go off and try to get sponsored for a work visa, but that depends on that person being willing and able to get a job here. What if they’re a novelist or an artist? What if they’re looking after their children? What if they can’t get a job here? After all more and more jobs here demand a knowledge of Mandarin and the hurdles to prove that a local couldn’t do your job are becoming harder and harder to surmount. I’ve had a number of friends denied work visas of late and it’s becoming an ever more regular occurrence.

It’s a classic Hong Kong tactic – doing things by half-measures. This under-the-counter solution is meant to attract, or at least not deter, gay professionals from coming and working in Hong Kong, because for instance in a number of other countries same-sex partnerships are recognized for visa purposes. But by doing it like this, the Hong Kong government is once more showing their hostility to same-sex relationships. This milquetoast measure effectively declares that the Hong Kong government is actively opposed to homosexuality. By according no rights above those of a tourist to the partner, the government is effectively saying, “come and help us earn money but please don’t stay”.

Of course in some ways the Hong Kong Government is being logical – they don’t recognize heterosexual civil partnerships either. Civil partners do not qualify for a dependent’s visa – again they qualify for this kind of extended tourist visa. But the difference is that heterosexual partners are able to get married. I’m not saying that they should, just that if they are keen to live in Hong Kong that option is open to them. But currently Hong Kong doesn’t recognize legal same-sex marriages. So same-sex partners will forever be at a disadvantage.

The only way to remedy this is for Hong Kong to lead the way in Asia and show their true hunger for the best minds in the world by accepting civil partnerships as equal in status to marriage across the board. I truly don’t see how or why anyone can differentiate between two couples, one of which has a civil partnership and the other has a marriage. Both show commitment to one another, and in the case of same-sex unions it’s all that’s open to you. If you want to be a world leader today you have to move with the world, not cling pointlessly to outmoded ideas of human relationships.

Words: James Gannaban
I had to laugh when I saw the ad for the “HK – China Pole Dancing Championship.” I mean, really? I’ve always wanted to be a porn star, but I’m not likely to enter a competition just to prove my superiority over other Jeff Palmer wannabes. My feeble efforts at porn are best left to home videos, if at all. I’m may be delusional, but I’m not so deranged. Besides, the contestants were mostly women. I didn’t particularly relish the idea of getting up close and personal with lady parts. I have three sisters. I had enough girly bits swarming around me when I was little.

Nevertheless, it was my beautiful friend, Emma – whom I affectionately refer to as my “non-sexual wife” – who sent me the invite. What’s more, she happened to be hosting the competition. No way out for me. Like birthdays and weddings and funerals and disastrous break-ups, this was one of those instances when friends are entitled to subject each other to “The Friend Test.”

And so I went.

The event was held in Grappa’s. The place was packed like hell. Everybody was there – including my boss, who is a woman. I was mildly surprised to see that there was almost equal distribution of men and women in the audience. There were children, too. What??? Where were the old lechers whom I expected to pack the place like hungry hyenas?

This wasn’t Wan Chai, after all…

There was a great degree of difficulty in most of the routines. An incredible amount of core strength, musicality and artistry was required to deliver a successful performance. A pole dancer is practically a hybrid of gymnast, ballerina and drag queen: gymnastics for the sport; ballet for the form; drag for the fucking show. Grappa’s was awash with feathers and sequins and bare legs.

The crowd was too thick such that it was impossible to make it to the bar to grab a drink. I got tired quickly. After a while, I gave up photographing the contestants all together. There were simply too many photographers who were in my damn frame. I started perving the sexy capoeira dancers, instead, and even one of the photographers, who had massive biceps. Thank goodness, I had telephoto lenses. I could be a peeping Tom without anyone being the wiser.

Moments later, a masculine form takes the stage. I do a double take. Is that really a girl? It looked like it might be a really muscular girl, but I couldn’t be sure… After all, some girls are so buff, they put flabby guys like me to shame.

It’s a boy.

His goes by the alias “Ah Bill” (阿彪), and he is true manna from heaven.

I mean, seriously? This boy is ALLOWED to gyrate on a pole! He had it all – a body seemingly carved from marble, the strength and precision of a disciplined athlete, and the stage chops of a seasoned performer.

Yes! Pole dancing has finally arrived. And I like it. I like it very much.

Who gives a rat’s ass about porn? I wonder what sort of miracles might happen if we installed a pole in The Cockpit…

Let the championship begin!

James Gannaban is Asia’s Most Hyperactive Gay Boy™.

Find him on http://jamesgannaban.blogspot.com/

Words: James Soo
It’s just disgusting really. Our esteemed government invited Hong Kwai-Wah to speak and ‘educate’ the Social Welfare Department about dealing with same-sex attraction in the youth. The purpose was to enable our social workers to make assessments with ‘knowledge from multiple perspectives’. Even though he has since tried to assert that his speech was not about converting gay youth, it is his stance, and the stance of his organization, the New Creation Association, that gays are made not born, that the individual has the ability to change sexual orientation through psychological or spiritual guidance.

Why does this make me so angry?

For a start, the government is essentially allowing a crackpot with a conservative religious agenda a forum to showcase his dangerous theories as science. Comparisons to the creationism movement in the States are too blatant to even warrant making. This is absurd religious moralizing posing as science. The idea that gays can be ‘converted’ is unfounded and there is no basis other than MrHong’s own anecdotal evidence of 19 people he has ‘treated’ going on to marry women. As we all know, marrying a woman is no evidence at all that you are straight.

But the reason why this is dangerous is because the social workers in question are dealing with youths and their parents. These young people are profoundly vulnerable. The implication that their sexual orientation is in some way ‘wrong’ confuses, upsets and potentially endangers their mental health at a critical juncture in their development. What they need is support, to know that being homosexual is not wrong, that they aren’t bad people to be gay. That being gay is just a fact of life, that it is neither good nor bad, it just is.

Furthermore, the implication of MrHong’s statement that he just wanted to ‘respect the client’s choice [of wanting to be heterosexual]’ is worrying. The clients in question are teenagers and their parents. So whose choice are we really talking about? I wonder if the choice isn’t really that of parents who don’t want to have homosexual children. And if that’s the case, then none of this is about supporting vulnerable youth at all, but encouraging the beliefs of their ignorant and frightened parents.

Of course, the fundamentally troubling thing is that the Hong Kong Government is giving this man and his dangerous beliefs a voice. We cannot stop people from claiming anything. That’s called freedom of speech and it gives humanity its soul. Exodus International have been “converting gays” in the US for years now – ironically two of its original founders have since left and ‘reverted’ to be being gay. But by legitimizing this man’s views, the Hong Kong Government is declaring to the world that it has the scientific intelligence of Uganda’s lawmakers who wanted to kill homosexuals.

Instead of supporting the idea that gay conversion exists and is a possibility, the Hong Kong Government needs to take a strong stance and say no to discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation to show conservative parents that homosexuality is not wrong. Instead of supporting Mr Hong, the Government needs to set up programs to reach out to sexually confused teenagers and support them if they can’t find that support at home. Instead of demonizing homosexuality, the Government needs to embrace the homosexual community and recognize it for the positive and vital role it plays in the rich social tapestry of Hong Kong.

We must all act to prevent the Hong Kong Government from using men likeMr Hong to sweep homosexuality under the carpet. We are what we are and we have every right to live the way we live. Giant strides in gay rights are being made around the world right now – how can Hong Kong, which is so progressive in so many other ways, take such a giant leap back into the Stone Age?

Go to Change.org and sign the petition, organise rallys, tell your colleagues, argue with your friends, do whatever you have to but stop the Hong Kong Government from this insanity.

Words: Reggie Ho

By now, many of you should have heard about the police’s crackdown on the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO 2011) Hong Kong rally. There have been reports about it in many major newspapers but the question remains: what was really happening?

It was extremely surprising that the police decided to crack down on us at this event because we had been led to believe we had completed all the necessary paperwork. In order to have a public rally, we needed a notice of no objection from the police. To get that we had to answer a lot of questions about the event – and we answered them all.

The only thing was whether we needed an application for a Temporary Places of Public Entertainment Licence. But no one from the government side could tell us exactly if we needed it – when we asked, we were told to decide for ourselves. The issue was that the programme contained a dance performance by Dancing Angels, who wanted to convey their hope for a world with no discrimination through choreography. As such, we did not consider it “entertainment” so much as the expression of an opinion, much like a speech. Besides, we knew that many rallies with music and dance had taken place before without such a licence, and there had never been a problem before.

The police, however, decided to crack down on us, and it seemed to have been done with destructive intent. Why I say this is that, curiously, police officers were actually present when the dance was being rehearsed, but at no point did they raise any issue. It was only when the performance was given during the rally that a group of officers turned up, stony-faced and armed with a camera.

One of them told us that under Chapter 172, we had to have a licence for the dance. They demanded that we stop the dance or we would be violating the law. Not wanting to escalate the situation and compromise the rest of the progamme, we did as requested. Dancing Angels’ days of practice had gone to waste. The police kept on filming us even when I was on stage announcing that the performance had to stop and explaining to the crowd why. It felt like an act of intimidation and I couldn’t understand why it was necessary for a peaceful rally like ours. We continued to the rest of the programme, which had to end around 4:30pm instead of 5pm because of the police action. But even then, it wasn’t good enough for our law enforcement authority: policemen turned up again to remove the barricades. We had the venue booked until 6pm, why would they need to do that?

The police were wrong. As you may have read in the press, legislator James To, himself a lawyer, says that this law does not apply to a rally like ours. Article 27 of the Basic Law protects the freedom of expression, and a rally that aims to convey the voice of a minority, whether through speeches or other forms of communication, should not be considered entertainment.

I have since opened a file with the Independent Police Complaints Council and it is my plan to pursue this until the very end. And I urge that all fellow tongzhi who value their freedoms and rights to do their parts. If you were there that day, you should put forward a complaint as well for the way you were treated. The police had no right to film you and make you look like the suspect of a crime. Even if you were not there, contact your district’s legislator (whose contact information can be found at