Hong Kong will be the first Asian city to host the Gay Games.
This announcement was made yesterday in Paris to the excitement of Hong Kong’s 13-member bidding team. Reports say that the team was screaming, hugging, and cheering as they greeted the news reporters covering the event.
Hong Kong won over locations like Washington, D.C. and Guadalajara, Mexico.
Bid chair Dennis Philipse spoke to the South China Morning Post about how proud he was of the result.
“We fought tirelessly and are elated to bring the games to Asia for the first time. Thank you all for your love and support,” he added.
Hong Kong will be host the Gay Games in 2022 at a little over 30 years since it was first held in 1982.
More athletes are expected to participate than the 15,000 that took part in Paris’s event. In addition the bid team expects about 1 billion in Hong Kong (approximately 128 billion US dollars) will come into the territory because of the event.
Alfred Chan, chairman of Hong Kong’s Equal Opportunities Commission, said that this is “a big step forward for Hong Kong itself to be able to win this world game,” and that “It is also a big step for diversity inclusion.”
This is just the latest in an ongoing string of progress found in Hong Kong.
While its close relative China is still very wishy-washy (yet still aggressive) towards LGBTQ people, Hong Kong is starting to change its policies in support of LGBTQ people.
Last month, Hong Kong shortened the period in which gay men can donate blood.
Then later that month, a British immigrant into Hong Kong was able to get union rights for her same-sex spouse that will allow them to be together in the Asian country.
