Hong Kong’s top court yesterday ordered the government to grant spousal rights and benefits to the husband of a gay civil servant who married overseas, in a ruling hailed as a “huge step forward for equality.”
The judgement, handed down by the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, was the latest instance in which the judiciary has found against the government and in favor of same-sex couples seeking greater equality.
Hong Kong does not recognize same-sex marriage or civil unions and only decriminalized homosexuality in 1991 — in contrast to Taiwan, where lawmakers last month became the first in Asia to legalize gay marriage.
Despite growing public support for gay rights, campaigners have made little headway against opposition from Hong Kong’s successive pro-Beijing governments and religious conservatives.
However, they have started to see some success in the courts.
The latest case was filed by Angus Leung (梁鎮罡), an immigration officer who legally married his husband Scott Adams in New Zealand in 2014.
When the newlyweds returned to Hong Kong, Leung applied for his husband to be granted the same medical and dental benefits available to his married heterosexual colleagues, but was rebuffed. He was also unable to register for married couple tax benefits.
Five judges unanimously ruled that denying the couple spousal rights for a marriage in New Zealand breached Hong Kong’s anti-discrimination laws.
Government lawyers said that granting spousal benefits would go against Hong Kong’s legal definition of marriage as being between a man and a wife, but the judges dismissed that argument.
The judges also said that the government’s reticence contravened the civil service’s own published commitment to being an equal-opportunity employer.
“It was a long, stressful journey to get the result today,” Leung and Adams said in a joint statement as they urged the government to end “discriminatory legislation.”
“Today’s unanimous judgement is huge step forward for equality in Hong Kong,” Amnesty International Hong Kong director Man-kei Tam (譚萬基) said. “It is outrageous that LGBTI people in Hong Kong continue to have to go to court in order to force the authorities to treat their relationships as equal.”
The ruling came after a British lesbian won the right for her partner to be granted a spousal visa in Hong Kong last year.
The two rulings would make it harder for authorities to reject legally recognized same-sex marriages conducted overseas.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
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