Hong Kong’s top court yesterday upheld three earlier rulings that favored granting public housing and inheritance rights to married same-sex couples, citing equality provisions in the territory’s mini-constitution.
The unanimous ruling by the Court of Final Appeal is the latest legal victory for Hong Kong’s LGBTQ+ community since last year.
Judges Andrew Cheung (張舉能), Robert Ribeiro, Joseph Fok (霍兆剛), Johnson Lam (林文瀚) and Frank Stock said in a written ruling they rejected the government’s arguments that same-sex and opposite sex couples were not comparable in terms of their rights to public housing.
Photo: AP
Cheung acknowledged the limited resources officials work with, but said this “in no way lessens the necessity of allocating social welfare benefits on a rational and justifiable basis, free from discrimination.”
Fok and Ribeiro wrote in another written ruling that existing inheritance rules were “discriminatory and unconstitutional.”
The government’s challenge to the top court came after the lower Court of Appeal earlier upheld rulings granting same-sex couples who married overseas subsidized housing rights and inheritance rights in three cases.
One involved the Housing Authority declining to consider an application by permanent resident Nick Infinger to rent a public apartment with his husband, because their marriage in Canada was not recognized in Hong Kong.
In the other, same-sex couple Edgar Ng (吳翰林) and his husband, Henry Li (李奕豪), were denied joint-ownership of a government-subsidised apartment, because their marriage in Britain was not recognized in Hong Kong.
Ng also launched the third case, expressing fears that if he died without leaving a will, he would not be able to pass his property to his husband under Hong Kong’s inheritance laws.
Li took over the two cases after Ng took his own life in 2020 after years of depression.
Speaking outside the court after the ruling, Infinger said he knew of other couples who wanted to create a home, but did not have the means to stage a legal battle.
“Today’s court rulings recognized that same-sex couples can love each other and deserve to live together,” Infinger said, waving an LGBTQ+ rainbow towel.
“This is not only fighting for me and for my partner, but this is fighting for all the same-sex couples in Hong Kong,” he said.
Li honored his late partner in a Facebook post.
“Today, November 26, 2024, our case has finally come to an end. I am grateful to the court for affirming your suffering and for your dedication to the equal rights for LGBTQ,” Li wrote.
Hong Kong’s top court in September ruled against same-sex marriage, but acknowledged the need for same-sex couples to access alternative legal frameworks to meet “basic social requirements,”
The government was given two years to produce the framework. Officials have yet to comment on yesterday’s ruling.
VAGUE: The criteria of the amnesty remain unclear, but it would cover political violence from 1999 to today, and those convicted of murder or drug trafficking would not qualify Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. Rodriguez also announced the shutdown
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
A Virginia man having an affair with the family’s Brazilian au pair on Monday was found guilty of murdering his wife and another man that prosecutors say was lured to the house as a fall guy. Brendan Banfield, a former Internal Revenue Service law enforcement officer, told police he came across Joseph Ryan attacking his wife, Christine Banfield, with a knife on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023. He shot Ryan and then Juliana Magalhaes, the au pair, shot him, too, but officials argued in court that the story was too good to be true, telling jurors that Brendan Banfield set
RSS