Fridae

Hong Kong's tongzhi (literally meaning comrade but refers to gays and lesbian) anticipates a strong voice in the next Legislative Council following Sunday's elections, which saw two of its four endorsed candidates in the geographical constituencies (GC) win seats and a significant number of candidates sympathetic to their call for equal rights elected.

"We expect our endorsed candidates to advance bills within the Legislative Council that will protect equal rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Hong Kong," said Roddy Shaw Kwok-wah, convenor of the Tongzhi Community Joint Meeting (TCJM) legal rights taskforce.

Elected were Leung Yiu-chung and Leung Kwok-hung. Ms Cyd Ho Sau-lan, an active advocate for tongzhi equal rights for two terms in the Legislative Council, was not re-elected. The TCJM thanks Ms Ho for her efforts and hope she will remain involved in the fight for equal rights in Hong Kong.

"Fifteen other candidates in GCs and six in FCs (functional constituencies) who are supportive of our platform have also been elected," Shaw said. He noted that for any bills to protect equal rights for tongzhi to be passed, the community is still "short by about seven pro-tongzhi votes". Shaw said the TCJM would actively lobby legislators in coming months.

Shaw said the aim of the tongzhi campaign was to mobilise a third of Hong Kong's 240,000 voters with alternative sexual orientations to back the four candidates. He believes that objective was attained.

He commented that he saw a boost among candidates in their concerns towards equality for minorities and hoped that at least half of the Legislative Council would support any bill the government might propose to protect people in Hong Kong from discrimination on the grounds of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

The government has said it will introduce a bill covering discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in the 2004-08 Legco, depending on the outcome of a public survey by early next year on community attitudes towards homosexuals.

However, the government has also indicated it would not introduce any bill unless it could be sure of at least 30 councillors in support.

More than a dozen tongzhi activists went around the polling stations on Sunday to lend support to the endorsed candidates, and to promote the tongzhi's election agenda, which includes anti-discrimination legislation, recognition of same-sex partnerships, more resources for sex education; better provision of family and social services, and equal ages of sexual consent for all.

Some 2,500 election handbooks were distributed in the week prior to the election detailing the position of each of the 159 candidates on equal rights.