Meet Tin & Linus, two of the organizers of Hong Kong Pride.
On June 28th, 1969 the Stonewall Riots kicked off a larger gay rights movement in the USA.
In 1970, the first gay pride marches took place in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago – today pride parades are taking place all around the world.
In 2018, I wanted to know who the people organizing today’s pride parades are, what the marches mean to them, and met wonderfully powerful, loving and kind people from places, which might not be the first ones that come to mind, when we think of queer love.
See all Faces of Pride.
What’s your name and age?
TIN: My name is Tin. 29 years old.
LINUS: My name is Linus, I am 36 years old.
Since when have you been involved with Hong Kong Pride?
TIN: I joined HK Pride in 2009 as a volunteer and became one of the core organizers 3-4 years ago.
LINUS: I was one of the volunteers at 2008 HK Pride, then I get more involved in 2015 when I had the chance to help leading the official photography team.
Why do you think Hong Kong Pride is important?
TIN: Before 2014, LGBT+ events and issues were almost invisible in HK society. HK Pride was quite important as a rare LGBT+ event in HK. In recent years, Pink Dot has been quite successful and more LGBT+ organizations have been trying to make their issues visible to HK society. Therefore, we are now in the time to differentiate so as to attract more people from different spectrum in the community.
LINUS: To me it is also about visibility. HK Pride is important being a strong visible demonstration combining clear demand for the sexual orientation discrimination legislation.
What is one (or two) remarkable thing(s) that has/have happened at Hong Kong Pride?
TIN: The remarkable things at HK Pride to me are that we shift social actions to community participation and from no one answering press interview to many participants willing to answer. We can see that from the increasing number of participants.
LINUS: The growth of HK Pride as an event, and to see how the crowd changes is pretty remarkable. At 2008 we had 1.000 participants and now in about 10 years time by 2017 we had 10.000 participants. Last year’s survey even showed there are about 18% straight people that came to support their queer friends and family, which is really a nice thing to see.
What do you do when you are not organizing Hong Kong Pride?
TIN: I work in Rainbow of HK. Mainly handling administrative work and frontline counseling.
LINUS: I have a day job at another non-profit organization. I am also the officer of Pride Lab – a local LGBT+ friendly group hoping to influence the public with values of equality through visual art. So I also manage Pride Lab’s matters.
What do you like to do in your free time?
TIN: Studying personal growth from friends around me and singing.
LINUS: I enjoy reading, from news to comics books, haha. Occasionally some aesthetic workout.
Is there something you would like to say to the rest of the LGBT+ community?
TIN: The most important reason why people should support us is that we deserve the same rights as the “main stream”. Because being different is a human right. That’s why we need to respect others, respect all people in the LGBT+ community and not judge anyone by their identity.
LINUS: This year I have some strong feelings about two things: Self-awareness and connection. Self-awareness in the sense that we all should think about what identity means to you, how it forms you and what kind of person you want to be with this identity. And connection in a sense that we need to reach out to people in different communities, and let them understand more about LGBT+. I personally believe this could be the way to go for the future.
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Not different, just love
How do you feel when it comes to dealing with our emotions, expectations and responsibilities, around coming out, living as a LGBTIQ+ person and when it comes to our families and love in general?
