High Court Reserves Judgement On Gay Marriage

A High Court judge on Thursday reserved judgement in a landmark case that could lead to gay marriage being legalised in Hong Kong.

A local woman, known in court as MK, is fighting for the right to marry her female partner. Or if that's not going to be possible, she says the next best thing would be a civil partnership.

Her lawyer, Gladys Li, argued that Article 37 of the Basic Law, which protects people's freedom to marry, is gender neutral.

But the government's lawyer, Stewart Wong, said the court should see this article as only protecting the rights of straight people to get married.

He said MK could just as easily be asking for the court to legalise marriages involving children, and this simply can't be right, he said, as it affects people's fundamental rights.

But Li said if the judge adopted a restrictive reading of the Basic Law provision on marriage, he would be setting in stone something that is profoundly discriminatory against gay people.

She said nothing in the language of the Basic Law suggests that the protection of the freedom to marry excludes homosexuals.

Li also warned that if the court agrees with the government, it would take a Beijing interpretation of the Basic Law or an amendment to the mini-constitution for the definition of marriage to be changed in future.

Judge Anderson Chow said he would announce his decision at a later date.