Sawt Falasteen - Hong Kong LGBTQ rights setback takes emotional toll

Just hours before, the city's legislature overwhelmingly vetoed a government bill that would have granted limited rights to same-sex couples -- a stinging defeat for an LGBTQ community that has already spent years on the back foot.

Some community members told AFP the outcome of Wednesday's vote was "expected", but that did little to cushion the emotional blow and assuage doubts about the future of advocating equality.

"I want to use a relatively calm activity to contain and process these grievances, and to preserve our energy to act," said performance artist Holok Chen, who organised the embroidery event.

Rather than listening to politicians' speeches, it was more important to offer emotional support to peers, especially young people in anguish, Chen said.

Chen passed a handful of flags to other LGBTQ groups to embroider and plans to display them all together at a street exhibition later this month.

"(Embroidery) is something communal, a gentle but powerful form of resistance."

After Wednesday's vote, rights activist Jimmy Sham said Hong Kong's ongoing unequal treatment of same-sex couples will become an "unhealed wound".

Sham was behind the legal bid that in 2023 led the city's top court to order the creation of an "alternate framework" to recognise same-sex couples' rights -- prompting the government proposal.

The court's demand still stands and authorities should "learn from the experience of this bill" and try again, he told reporters after the vote.

Sham was previously jailed under Hong Kong's sweeping national security law as part of a case targeting 47 pro-democracy figures. He completed his sentence in May.

While many former prisoners have kept a low profile, Sham remains outspoken and has sat in the public gallery for every legislative session regarding the same-sex partnerships bill.

"There are parts of me that feel angry, but I hope everyone will join me in not feeling discouraged, and to do what we can for Hong Kong," he said outside the legislature.

He added that he and his legal team will study options.

- Solace -

For arts administrator Kevin Wong, the discarded bill -- which included a provision allowing a person to handle after-death arrangements of a partner -- hit close to home.

Wong wrote a letter in July urging lawmakers to support the bill, citing his experience dealing with the aftermath of his partner's suicide in 2021.

"Same-sex couples could be denied the right to say final goodbyes in a hospital, to make medical directions or even be blocked from attending funerals," he wrote.

Wong, 54, said the bill's defeat reinforced his worry that "for the next decade or so (LGBTQ people) may need to live in an unfavourable environment" both in Hong Kong and abroad.

But he said he found solace in storytelling as "a form of healing".

Last year, he participated in a stage production where he and other non-professional actors shared their encounters with death.

"When a story is told many times, it will generate a kind of power... And that is also a power for myself."

U.AlSharif--SF-PST