HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s Supreme Court will decide today (Tuesday) whether to recognize same-sex marriages in a landmark case in the long-standing fight for equality by the LGBTQ community in the Chinese city.
Over the past decade, LGBTQ activists in the former British colony have gradually won court victories overturning discriminatory government policies on visas, taxes and housing benefits.
But the case brought by jailed pro-democracy activist Jimmy Sham – due to be decided at 14:30 (0630 GMT) on Tuesday – will be the first time Hong Kong’s final appeals court has directly addressed the same-sex issue. marriage.
Since launching his challenge in 2018, Sham, 36, has twice failed to convince courts that Hong Kong should legally recognize his same-sex marriage, which was registered in New York nearly a decade ago.
In its latest setback, in August 2022, appeals judges wrote that Hong Kong’s constitutional text “provides access to the institution of marriage only to heterosexual couples”.
Sham argued that the city’s ban on same-sex marriage violates his right to equality, while the lack of a political alternative — such as civil unions — does the same, in addition to violating his right to privacy.
British lawyer Karon Monaghan, representing Sham, told the court in June that the ban disadvantaged same-sex couples in areas such as inheritance and lettings.
Gender studies expert Suen Yiu-tung said Hong Kong decriminalized sexual acts between male adults in 1991, but still had “no protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity”.
Local courts have struck down the discriminatory policy “domain by domain”, but the approach has resulted in “a really, really long journey”, Suen told AFP.
Tuesday’s case was different because it called for “wholesale” recognition of same-sex marriage, but that also means success “may be more difficult,” he added.
In Asia, only Nepal and Taiwan recognize same-sex marriage, while in South Korea lawmakers recently introduced legislation to recognize same-sex partnerships.
A survey this year showed that 60 percent of Hong Kong residents support same-sex marriage, compared to just 38 per cent a decade ago.
