Performance artist calls out lawmakers for ‘homophobic slurs,' says LGBTQ community ‘not something to fear'
Holok Chen and an activist who asked not to be named staged a performance and spoke to reporters outside the Cotton Tree Drive Marriage Registry in Central on Monday. Both were dressed as monsters, with Chen donning a wedding gown and the activist wearing a tuxedo.
Chen said their costumes symbolised the way lawmakers had 'demonised' the LGBTQ community in their discussion of the government's proposed framework for recognising same-sex partnerships.
'It feels almost [as if] I'm talking to my father when I'm reading all those reports from the [Legislative] Council, how they use homophobic slurs… saying that we might harm children and women,' Chen told HKFP.
Referring to their costumes, Chen added: 'I want to create a speculative future where monsters, even monsters of different taxonomy, can live, can love, can kiss and can enjoy their divine union.'
The government's proposal is currently going through the Legislative Council (LegCo).
Since an electoral overhaul in 2021 that required lawmakers to be 'patriots,' the council has been left without an opposition.
However, all but one major political party in the Legislative Council has said that they oppose the bill, which proposes allowing couples who married or formed a union overseas to be recognised as a partnership in Hong Kong.
Most parties say such a framework threatens traditional family values and could pave the way for the legalisation of same-sex marriage, something the government has denied.
Earlier this month, lawmaker Holden Chow said in a LegCo meeting that the framework could encourage 'two fathers' and 'two mothers' to adopt children.
'How can we educate the next generation to uphold family values and the traditional institution of marriage between a man and a woman under such circumstances?' he said in Cantonese.
Another lawmaker, Priscilla Leung, warned that the proposal would open 'a Pandora's box.'
Chen staged a performance outside the LegCo building on Friday, wearing a rainbow-coloured cape and carrying a 'Pandora's box,' plastered with words like 'love and 'hope,' in an apparent protest against Leung's remark.
Chen, who identifies as a non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, said they wanted to use the performance to 'recontextualise our existence: that we are not something that you have to fear, not something that you have to gatekeep.'
A dozen police officers watched as the artist and the activist staged their performance, unfurling a white banner that said 'Queertopia.' The officers also asked the pair for their ID cards and cordoned them off from reporters with orange tape before the performance began.
'Toxic'
The government unveiled its proposal earlier this month, three months before the deadline to establish a framework for recognising same-sex partnerships, following a top court ruling in 2023 that found the lack of such a mechanism unconstitutional.
The case stemmed from a judicial review by pro-democracy activist Jimmy Sham, who married his partner in New York in 2013 and challenged local authorities' lack of recognition of their union.
The top court gave the government two years – until October 27 this year – to fulfil the obligation ordered by the court.
Ahead of submitting the proposed framework to the Legislative Council earlier this month, the government did not hold any public consultations despite LGBTQ advocacy groups' efforts to reach out to the authorities.
No public hearings, where members of the public present their views to officials in LegCo meetings, will be held. There is only a five-day window to send written submissions, which ends at 5pm on Tuesday.
Chen said they had few expectations for the framework, which activists have criticised as being limited and offering only protection in the areas of medical issues and after-death arrangements.
The artist criticised that the government had two years to work on the framework, but it did not consult the LGBTQ community in the process and only introduced the bill to the legislature in recent weeks.
While heterosexual couples have a 'guaranteed house,' the framework offers same-sex couples only a 'tin board,' Chen said.
'[The government says] You can build your own house, but I won't even provide a sofa or a place for you to stand on,' they added. 'There are many voices that want to even vote down this tin house.'
Earlier on Monday, the Legislative Council's Bills Committee on the Registration of Same-sex Partnerships Bill completed its clause-by-clause review of the bill, with lawmakers asking officials questions on matters such as issuing registration certificates and how partnerships can be nullified.
Chen said they had not paid too much attention to what lawmakers had been saying in the meetings, calling them 'toxic.'
'They do not take up space [in my head],' Chen said in Cantonese. 'Why should I give them space to harm me?'
Online petition
Chen called on LGBTQ supporters to join an online petition initiated by Sham, which invites people to send in written submissions using a template.
The LegCo website, which publishes the written submissions, however, has not been updated since last week.
Regina Ip, the only lawmaker on the bills committee who supports the framework, asked committee chair Brave Chan if all submissions received would be viewable online. Chan said yes, except for submissions for which anonymity was requested.
Following the completion of the discussion in the committee on Monday, the bill will move to the council meeting for a debate, in which all 89 lawmakers will take part before voting.
No date has been set yet for the debate. The Legislative Council will take a summer break in August before resuming in September.
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