In February, Manny Pacquiao faced a whole lot of anger in response to his statement that gay people are “worse than animals“. Pacquiao later apologised for what he said but stood strong on his anti-gay marriage stance. Pacquiao immediately got confronted with a media firestorm and lost his contract with Nike, which slammed his comments as “abhorrent”.
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club Hong Kong (FCC) has planned a “boxing breakfast” event this Sunday, April 10, where members and guests can watch Manny Pacquiao’s fight against Timothy Bradley. Tickets cost HKD390 per person (HKD290 for members) and include a full breakfast buffet.
Given Pacquiao’s remarks on same-sex relationships, members of the Hong Kong LGBTQ community have been urging the FCC event to be cancelled, with AIDS Concern, Big Love Alliance, OUT Leadership, Rainbow Action and The Pink Alliance adding their names to a letter that the groups are urging people to email to the FCC. The Hong Kong Gay and Lesbian Attorneys Network (HKGALA) has also joined the calls to cancel the screening.
The campaign is being spearheaded by Paul Schulte, an addiction counsellor who works specifically with LGBTQ clients. In one of several emails to the FCC, he said that Pacquiao’s comments “represent discrimination, homophobia and mean-spirited language in their worst possible forms”, and that the club’s event “celebrating” the boxer is “a tacit and implicit approval of [Pacquiao’s] outrageous remarks”.
He added that only a few weeks earlier, the FCC had hosted an exhibition called “Queers of Hong Kong” in the very same room that the fight will be screened. The month-long exhibition by Joe Lam displayed photos of LGBTI people, with the aim of capturing the loneliness and isolation that they face in Hong Kong.
Coconuts HK has reached out to the FCC for comment but we have not yet received a response.
Pink Alliance, a Hong Kong organisation that works to promote equal rights for LGBTQ people, told Coconuts HK in an emailed statement that “to continue screening the match would be a slap in the face on FCC’s long standing traditional to defend freedoms”.
Lusheen Beaumont, the current title holder for Mr. Gay Hong Kong, suggested a compromise to Coconuts HK, since the FCC has “indicated its resolve” to go ahead with the event. He proposed that the club should donate the proceeds from the event to LGBTI outreach groups in Hong Kong: “This would show both the sincerity of the FCC’s previous commitment to the LGBTI community and a meaningful acknowledgement of the weighty responsibilities that come with exercising freedom of speech.”
Words: Ella Watson
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