Lisa Lam, co-chair and general counsel for Gay Games, and Victoria Wisniewski Otero, founder of diversity-focused non-profit Resolve, discuss diversity in Hong Kong and what we can all do to drive inclusivity in the city
When Lisa Lam left Hong Kong to study in Canada, it was an opportunity to find herself.
“I realised there are many minorities in this world in different contexts. Growing up in Hong Kong as a Chinese person, I was pretty normal, pretty mainstream, even though I didn’t have the words or visibility about my sexual orientation. In Canada, I became a visible minority because of the colour of my skin, but then being queer was quite okay.”
While there, Lam started a youth group for LGBTQ+ people, and while she experienced some overt negative discrimination—including an arson attack on the group’s office—being thrown together with people from different backgrounds made her realise that “we are more common than different”, and she developed an interest in creating “a space where everyone could be themselves regardless of background or identity”.
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Lam went on to a two-decade corporate career in law where she was less directly involved in diversity and inclusion. When she left that work in 2017, she returned to inclusion work, taking on a role at the volunteer-run Gay Games in 2018, where she again aims to create a safe space for people from different backgrounds.
When Victoria Wisniewski Otero moved to Hong Kong ten years ago, she worked with refugees before founding Resolve, because she wanted to help people tell their own story rather than speaking on their behalf, and to do so across different communities, from domestic workers to LGBTQ+ people to the disability community.
“To change mindsets to be more tolerant and inclusive, you need visibility of people from those minority groups who can be ambassadors,” says Wisniewski Otero. “But that doesn’t come from nowhere. They need support; they need allyship; they need funding; they need a platform and they need skills development and resources.”
Resolve offers that, particularly through its signature fellowship programme that empowers emerging leaders from different communities to become changemakers.
