Overseas gay marriage fight to go to HK's top urt - RTHK

Contents:

• GAY MARRIAGE WOULD BE MORE AT HOME AMONG HONG KONG’S TRADNS THAN URT SUGGTS
• HONG KONG REF TO ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE AT BRISH NSULATE
• HONG KONG'S GAY MARRIAGE OBJECTN
• GAY MARRIAGE HONG KONG: MAJORY OF PEOPLE SUPPORT LEGALIZATN
• HONG KONG GAY TRAVEL
• GAY OFFICIAL WS COURT BATTLE FOR SPOAL BENEFS HONG KONG
• GAY HONG KONG CIVIL SERVANT WS SPOAL BENEFS AFTER FOUR YEAR BATTLE
• HONG KONG BEHD THE TIM ON GAY RIGHTS
• GAY RIGHTS HONG KONG

GAY MARRIAGE WOULD BE MORE AT HOME AMONG HONG KONG’S TRADNS THAN URT SUGGTS

Photo: Nora Tam Gay marriage would be more at home among Hong Kong’s tradns than urt suggts Mar Wan says the Court of Appeal’s votn of ‘tradnal’ marriage Hong Kong beli the multiplicy of timate unns practised the terrory throughout history Published: 2:00pm, 6 Jun, 2018 Updated: 8:46pm, 6 Jun, 2018 A flag is held aloft durg Hong Kong Pri Para 2012. In June 2019 the cy’s top urt once aga set a precent, lg favour of Ang Lng, a gay immigratn officer who challenged the urts after his spoe was nied spoal benefs, cludg medil re and jot tax asssment, which are available to heterosexual upl. The Hong Kong ernment has refed to allow same-sex upl to marry at the Brish nsulate the cy, UK officials have said, promptg cricism om gay and lbian rights Brish Foreign Office announced last week would allow s overseas missns to perform same-sex marriag for Brons and their partners untri where is illegal unr lol laws.

HONG KONG REF TO ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE AT BRISH NSULATE

However, the service, which cis wh legislatn to perm same-sex marriag takg effect the UK, was ntgent on lol thori grantg their Kong's refal to allow the marriag me spe untri often cricised for their gay rights rerds, cludg Cha, Rsia and Azerbaijian, as well as the eply Catholic Philipp, givg their nsent. Same-sex marriag and civil partnerships are illegal socially nservative Hong Kong, where homosexualy was only crimalised 2012, a tyon offered a $65m (£39m) "marriage bounty" to any man who uld w the heart of his lbian dghter. Image source, AFPImage ptn, Sexual discrimatn is not banned Hong KongNews that Hong Kong's ernment has objected to plans to allow same-sex upl to wed at the Brish nsulate the Che cy has angered gay rights Kong's bt-known lbian, Gigi Chao, whose billnaire father famoly offered $100m (£60m) to any man the world who n marry her, said the refal was a "disgrace".

HONG KONG'S GAY MARRIAGE OBJECTN

"Y, we are disappoted, but the news is not unexpected as this former lony is clearly tent on erng om the pths of nial and sidg wh the populist ochlocracy [mob le] of homophobic groups, " she says she hop the right will be extend, but may not be so simple, legally source, APImage ptn, Gigi Chao ma headl when her father offered $100m to any man who would marry herAfter years of bate, same-sex marriage beme legal England and Wal March.

"Unfortunately, the Hong Kong ernment has raised an objectn to the solemnisatn of same-sex marriag Hong Kong, " said a spokwoman at the Brish source, AFPImage ptn, Gay marriage is openly accepted Asian societi like JapanImage source, Getty ImagImage ptn, The Pk Dot gay movement first began SgaporeImage source, AFPImage ptn, Gay activists have held paras and protts Hong Kong beforeCountri seen as ls smopolan and progrsive than Hong Kong have allowed the clu the Philipp, Vietnam, Rsia and even maland Cha, whose domtic polici are generally n separately om Hong Kong. "The ntroversy the same week that gay and lbian rights activists like Ms Chao are preparg to lnch the Pk Dot rally Hong mori and their fai and iends have been ved to the public event, featurg ee ncerts by some of the cy's well-known gay and lbian Pk Dot movement actually began 2009 Sgapore, another former Brish lony where UK natnals will not be allowed to marry their same-sex partners.

GAY MARRIAGE HONG KONG: MAJORY OF PEOPLE SUPPORT LEGALIZATN

For example, Alan Turg, the breaker who ciphered Enigma d msag, a breakthrough that was val to the Brish war effort agast Nazi Germany, was nvicted for beg gay 1952, was subjected to chemil stratn, and mted suici 1954. We should not discrimate agast gay people, but that don’t mean that we n allow them to society or make act agast mon Wong, 15, Chiu Lut S Memorial Sendary SchoolHow to talk to someone wh different polil views whout gettg nastyScience has proved that homosexualy is a normal and natural variatn human behavur.

Neverthels, is ccial to be aware of the fact that such legislatn volv a lot more than jt the uple or their addn to discrimatn and cricism om society, gay marriage fac several social welfare issu. Gay Marriage⚭✖ Foreign same-sex marriag regnized onlyCensorship✔ No censorshipChangg Genr✔ Legal, surgery not requiredNon-bary genr regnnUnknownDiscrimatn✖ Illegal some ntextsEmployment Discrimatn✖ No protectnsHog Discrimatn✖ No protectnsDonatg Blood✖ Banned (1-year ferral)Conversn TherapyUnknown. (Thomson Rters Foundatn) - A Hong Kong urt refed on Friday to regnise same-sex marriag nducted abroad, alg a blow to the cy’s LGBT+ muny a se brought by a gay lol uncillor who got married New unns are illegal the semi-tonomo Che cy, but gay upl have won small regnns some spoal benefs such as visas and hog recent years as a rult of a seri of legal Sham, a lol district uncillor who married his male partner New York 2013, had mand the cy regnise all gay marriag registered overseas, argug that refal to do so was “highly unfair and discrimatory” asked the urt to clare that cy laws were vlatg his nstutnal right to equaly, but the High Court threw out his applitn on Friday on the grounds that was “unstaable as a matter of law”.

“The applint’s attempt the prent se to achieve plete pary of legal regnn of foreign same-sex marriag and foreign oppose-sex marriag is too amb, ” judge Anrson Chow wrote his, a separate se the same urt on Friday led favour of another Hong Kong gay uple, who married London, grantg them herance rights siar to heterosexual two s were the latt a seri of challeng to laws that discrimate agast LGBT+ people the former Brish lony, which last year upheld a ban on same-sex civil has said gay upl are often unclear about their rights as thori refed to regnise their rights.

HONG KONG GAY TRAVEL

“The urt missed s chance to advance the legal stat of overseas married same-sex upl, ” said a Kong – which returned to Che le 1997 - crimalised homosexualy 1991, and the cy hosts an annual Pri para and lively gay scene. “The urt regnized the sential humany, digny and equaly of lbian and gay members of our muny, ” wrote Vidler & Co, a law firm volved the ligatn, “and reaffirmed Hong Kong’s re prciple, as enshred the Basic Law, of equal treatment for all unr the law.

Another legal challenge to Hong Kong’s polici on gay marriage me June last year, when the Court of Fal Appeal led favour of a homosexual civil servant applyg for spoal benefs for his partner.

Secretary for the Civil Service, the Hong Kong Court of Fal Appeal held that the ernment unlawfully discrimated agast a gay civil servant by refg to regnize his same-sex marriage—entered to abroad—when nsirg the grantg of lol spoal benefs and jot tax asssment. 1 In the first se, a gay civil servant challenged the ernment’s refal to regnize his same-sex marriage, legally entered to New Zealand, for the purpos of grantg lol spoal benefs and jot tax asssment.

GAY OFFICIAL WS COURT BATTLE FOR SPOAL BENEFS HONG KONG

The clu: (1) the se of Nick Infger, a Hong Kong permanent rint, who married his boyiend Canada and has been nied public hog Hong Kong on the basis of a ernment policy that only regniz the eligibily of oppose-sex married upl for certa tegori of public hog rental;2 (2) the se of a woman known as MK, who is argug for the troductn of civil partnership the terrory;3 and (3) a se brought by a universy stunt and a gay activist, whose nam are, as yet, undisclosed, that challeng lol laws rtrictg marriage to oppose-sex upl. 4The s llectively signal that marriage equaly is an issue whose time has e Hong Kong, and there is currently an ongog, and impassned, bate law and polics about the meang of marriage and the spe of gay and lbian rights. The rhetoric of “tradnal marriage” has entered to the disurse not only of policians, activists, and policymakers, but also of judg, barristers, and light of recent and upg s, is necsary not only to take stock of the rapidly evolvg landspe of gay and lbian rights Hong Kong, but to analyze the possible future trajectori of same-sex marriage the terrory, and to sctize the terms wh which the bate is nducted.

GAY HONG KONG CIVIL SERVANT WS SPOAL BENEFS AFTER FOUR YEAR BATTLE

Sce the Handover of 1997, the most persistent feature of the landspe of gay and lbian rights Hong Kong has been the ernment’s stnch refal to troduce a law proscribg sexual-orientatn discrimatn. 14 More recently, siar groups have placed prsure on lol public librari to remove children’s books wh purportedly gay and lbian them on the grounds that they were promotg immoral and unnventnal liftyl. 17 The efforts have so far been succsful layg the troductn of new laws proscribg send nsequence of ernment actn is that has enuraged gays and lbians to turn to the urts for redrs; the ertia of the executive branch meant that the groups have had to rely on the judicial branch for protectn.

The urt held that, given that buggery was the only form of terurse available to homosexuals, the discrepancy between the ag of nsent for homosexual and heterosexual terurse stipulated by the provisn nstuted unlawful discrimatn.

The cisn stood out agast the backdrop of the ernment’s actn, and s groundbreakg nature is reflected the South Cha Morng Post’s observatn at the time that the stggle for gay rights Hong Kong remaed an “uphill battle” spe this legal victory.

HONG KONG BEHD THE TIM ON GAY RIGHTS

36 What the attempted terventn unrsr is the signifint expatriate prence Hong Kong: as same-sex marriage be legal, normalized, and entrenched the expatriat’ home untri, the nceptns of marriage equaly will, evably, travel across “ternal” factor is the creasg awarens of marriage equaly amongst Hong Kong-born gays and lbians. 39 As a further ditn of how prsg the qutn has bee, a recent survey by the Che Universy of Hong Kong shows that almost half of the gay and lbian rponnts had nsired leavg the terrory bee has— a global ntext—fallen behd the procs of legalizg or regnizg of same-sex marriage.

They have long argued for the need to protect “tradnal marriage” om beg erod by mands for marriage equaly by gays and lbians, and they have tensified their opposn as a reactn to both the QT cisn and to the creasg number of untri that have legalized same-sex marriage recent years. ”92In light of the importance that Hong Kong’s hight urt attach to velopments the ternatnal arena, is signifint to note that, jt as global norms about genr equaly nsolidated and spread the years leadg up to marriage reform the terrory, ternatnal prcipl about equal rpect for gays and lbians are emergg and crystallizg our own era.

GAY RIGHTS HONG KONG

On the other hand, advot of same-sex marriage argue that Hong Kong society is pable of havg more than one maral form and that different kds of marriag—be they heterosexual or homosexual—n exist harmonly. I have argued that terms such as “tradnal marriage” as ed by lol opponents of marriage equaly nstute an ventn of tradn, or an iologil narrative of tim past that ni gays and lbians the regnn, protectn, and digny they serve. ” Compared to other Asian untri like Indonia, where LGBTQ persecutn is fuelg an HIV epimic, or Malaysia where homosexualy is illegal and ‘how to spot a gay’ checklists recently appeared one newspaper, Hong Kong is a relatively safe place for the muny.