Pink Season event highlights call of Hong Kong’s LGBT community to lawmakers: we’re ready for equal rights, listen to society
- Five weeks of themed activities held in city up to November 3 raise discussion of recent legal milestones
- Campaigners applaud progress made that may pave way for same-sex partners to enjoy rights equal to those of heterosexual couples
LGBT campaigners have applauded key legal developments in Hong Kong that they say could eventually bring same-sex partners the same rights enjoyed by heterosexual couples.
And while warning that a hard fight lies ahead to secure those rights, they pointed to research that suggests the public is in favour of expanding legal protections for LGBT people.
In a forum on Thursday night, held as part of Pink Season, a five-week festival of LGBT-themed events in the city that ends on November 3, legal experts and researchers hailed a July ruling by Hong Kong’s highest court that granted a married British lesbian a spousal visa. She had initially been denied one.
They are now following closely the outcome of a case involving gay civil servant Angus Leung, who is seeking the same spousal and tax benefits enjoyed by heterosexual couples for his husband.
Aaron Chan, a lawyer from the team representing Leung, said: “Gay rights are like any human rights issue: if you are a human being, no matter what ethnic group you come from, you deserve the same rights. That should be applicable to Hong Kong as well.”
Gay rights are like any human rights issue: if you are a human being, no matter what ethnic group you come from, you deserve the same rights
Under Hong Kong’s Marriage Reform Ordinance (1970), marriage is defined as “the voluntary union for life of one man with one woman to the exclusion of all others”.
