By Victor Ting

Hong Kong’s LGBT migrant workers and their supporters held a peaceful pride rally on Sunday in a renewed push for better wages and end to the discrimination and social exclusion they feel they face in the city.

Chanting slogans, including “We are here, we are queer, we will never disappear”, about 200 activists, predominantly Filipino domestic helpers, from 14 LGBT and migrant rights’ organisations gathered in Edinburgh Place in Central to make their voices heard.

“This is our fifth annual pride [rally]and we started with just three groups organising it,” said Shiela Tebia, the event organiser and vice chair of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong.

“Migrants’ pride in their various nationalities, genders and beliefs make up this growing community. We still have a lot of struggles – as LGBTs and as migrants – to achieve a society where injustice, exclusion and discrimination are non-existent.”

Hong Kong currently has specific anti-discrimination laws for gender, disability, family status and race – but none for sexual orientation.

The city only recognises same-sex marriage in certain situations – such as taxation, civil servants’ benefits, or application of dependent visas if a couple has married overseas – and most advances for the LGBT community have come after legal challenges in the past few years. Read more via SCMP