The Hong Kong Pride Parade is underway and we’ve got photos as well as a story of two great groups participating.
While it’s become fairly common to see Christian-based groups openly protesting Pride parades and events, there’s often also Christian groups participating in them too.
One such group that’s out participating in the parade is an LGBT-inclusive Christian church run by Joe Pang.
Talking to the South China Morning Post before the event, Pang, a Malaysian-Chinese pastor, said that he was looking forward to participating in the parade. Joe Pang will be leading the event’s first worship service and holy communion in the 10 years that the event's been running.
As for Joe Pang himself, he knows what it’s like to be rejected by religious folk. He was once kicked out of his Kuala Lumpur-based church after coming out as gay. This spurred him on to become a force of love and acceptance in the Christian community.
“All the voices against [LGBT people], they come from religion, they come from the Christian religion. We are the gay Christians, we know how to respond to them and we know why they are so loud,” Pang says. “That’s why we need to be there.”
Sadly, Hong Kong is still developing when it comes to LGBTQ rights. In fact, there are no anti-discrimination laws concerning LGBTQ people, and Christian-based groups have fought advocacy for such laws at every turn.
“Not all Christians are like that,” says Jason Ho, a representative of the LGBTQ-inclusive Christian coalition called the Covenant of the Rainbow, “That’s why the LGBT-inclusive and affirming groups of Christians must come out and balance [the conservative] voice – because their voice is not the only attitude, their voice is not the only voice of Christians.”
While there is an ongoing fight for LGBTQ-rights in Hong Kong, it’s good to see that there are Christian groups on our side and that they are present during the bad times as well as the good.
