China Hong Kong court strengthens rights of same-sex couples

In Hong Kong, the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the legal right of same-sex couples to housing and inheritance. This strengthens the rights of LGBTQ people.

"The court unanimously dismisses the appeals brought by the Hong Kong government," declared Chief Justice Andrew Cheung in two court rulings on Tuesday. Part of Tuesday's court rulings concerned Hong Kong's public rental apartments and subsidized apartments sold under a home ownership scheme.

The rulings follow a landmark ruling by the Court of Appeal in 2023 that prevented the legalization of same-sex marriage but gave the government two years to create an alternative legal framework for same-sex couples. They also mark the end of a six-year legal battle.

At the time, Hong Kong resident Nick Infinger had sued the government over a regulation that excluded him and his partner from public rental housing on the grounds that they were not a "normal family". The case was later heard together with another case in which Hong Kong resident Henry Li and his now deceased husband Edgar Ng went to court because the latter could not appoint him as co-owner of their shared apartment under the laws of the time.

Infinger and Li won in the lower courts, but the government appealed to Hong Kong's highest court of appeal in February.

Improvements in the past decade

The organization Hong Kong Marriage Equality welcomed Tuesday's court rulings. It called on the government to "immediately end the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage".

Over the past decade, the legal situation for LGBTQ people in the former British crown colony has already improved considerably: court rulings have overturned discriminatory regulations regarding the granting of visas, tax law and housing benefits. The abbreviation LGBTQ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer.

So far, Nepal and Taiwan are the only Asian countries in which same-sex couples are allowed to marry. In South Korea, the parliament recently approved the introduction of registered same-sex partnerships.

SDA