\u201cThis is our fifth annual pride [rally]and we started with just three groups organising it,\u201d said Shiela Tebia, the event organiser and vice chair of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
\u201cMigrants\u2019 pride in their various nationalities, genders and beliefs make up this growing community. We still have a lot of struggles \u2013 as LGBTs and as migrants \u2013 to achieve a society where injustice, exclusion and discrimination are non-existent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hong Kong currently has specific anti-discrimination laws for gender, disability, family status and race \u2013 but\u00a0none for sexual orientation<\/a>.<\/p>\n The city only recognises same-sex marriage in certain situations \u2013 such as taxation, civil servants\u2019 benefits, or application of dependent visas if a couple has married overseas \u2013 and most advances for the LGBT community have come after legal challenges in the\u00a0past few years<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last month, the Court of First Instance turned down Hong Kong\u2019s first judicial challenge for same-sex marriage, ruling against a woman who complained that the government\u2019s failure to provide gay marriage or civil union partnerships had violated her constitutional rights.<\/p>\n Sunday\u2019s rally was held less than a week before Hong Kong\u2019s annual LGBT pride parade, which is expected to draw thousands of participants on November 16 to march from Victoria Park to Edinburgh Place.<\/p>\n Tebia said LGBT migrants had a unique set of struggles, experiences and demands.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are in this fight together, but migrants face double discrimination because there is a stigma attached to our ethnicity and our work as domestic helpers,\u201d she said. \u201cWe contribute so much to the Hong Kong economy and society, yet many of us get odd stares and angry looks in our employer\u2019s homes and on the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n An estimated 380,000 foreign domestic workers live in Hong Kong and earn an average monthly salary of HK$4,630 (US$591). Campaigners want that salary to increase to HK$5,894. The workers are also required by law to live in their employer\u2019s accommodation where they work.<\/p>\n Ivan Delfin has worked in Hong Kong for 15 years for six different employers, and is in a nine-year relationship with his partner and fellow domestic helper Ivy Alamid. The 37-year-old transgender Filipino said the live-in policy had violated his privacy and made him subject to abuse.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t be myself and proud at my old employers\u2019 homes because they would ask me why I dressed like a man wearing trousers. I felt very troubled because I knew if I came out to them, I might lose my job,\u201d Delfin said.<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cThe long working hours as a domestic helper coupled with the live-in requirement meant it was very hard for us to meet someone and maintain a romantic relationship to start with.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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