HK Woman In High Court Fight For Same-sex Marriage

The High Court on Tuesday began hearing a ground-breaking legal challenge from a Hong Kong woman seeking the right to either marry or enter into a civil partnership with her female partner.

The woman, known as MK, is arguing that the Marriage Ordinance is unconstitutional, because it denies gay SAR residents certain benefits, such as housing rights and joint tax assessment.

Her lawyer Gladys Li argued that according to Article 25 of the Basic Law, everybody should be equal before the law.

But she told the court that the government treats marriage like “a private members’ club”, with only heterosexual couples allowed to join, while same-sex couples are turned away.

Li added that the administration has a bizarre interpretation of the constitutional right to marry, as stipulated in Article 37 of the Basic Law.

"One should look at each individual....so the reading is that the freedom of marriage of each Hong Kong resident shall be protected by law. If you read it that way, it's completely gender neutral," Li said.

She noted that gay people should not be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation, and that it is the government's obligation to justify the inequality or the differential treatment.

Li said while the case is a divisive matter, it is also of great public importance, and she urged High Court judge Anderson Chow to treat the issue solely on its legal and constitutional points, and not on social or moral grounds.

"This is about a legal status rather than a social status. You are not concerned with social attitude ... the point is, you can change the legal effects of discrimination," the lawyer told the judge.

The case comes as the Court of Final Appeal considers a legal challenge from a gay civil servant who is fighting for the husband he married abroad to be eligible for spousal benefits.

Hong Kong currently has neither gay marriage, nor any form of civil partnership.

In July last year, however, the city's top court ruled that immigration officials must accept requests for dependant visas for the same-sex civil or married partners of Hong Kong residents, including foreigners who come to work in the SAR.

A Hong Kong man has also launched a bid for same-sex marriage to be legalised, while another is fighting for the SAR to recognise overseas same-sex marriages. The High Court has decided to deal with MK's challenge first before moving on to these two cases.