Hong Kong court ruled to give gay couples equal housing rights in the city

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Hong Kong government's bid to deny same-sex married couples the right to rent and own public housing has been dismissed by the court on Tuesday (October 17th, 2023).

The verdict made by the court said that it was "discriminatory in nature" and a complete denial of such couples' rights.

The ruling by Hong Kong's Court of Appeal is the latest in a series of legal developments for gay rights advocates in Hong Kong.

The government had challenged two High Court rulings that it was "unconstitutional and unlawful" for the city's, housing authority to exclude same-sex couples who married abroad from public housing.

The appeal consisted of two cases. The first is the one in which the government rejected a permanent resident's application to rent a public flat with his husband because their marriage in Canada was invalid in Hong Kong.

The second one consisted of the same-sex couple whose joint ownership of a government-subsidised flat was rejected by the government due to their marriage in Britain which was also not recognised in Hong Kong.

The justices of the Appeal Court, Jeremy Poon, Aarif Barma and Thomas Au said in a written judgment that the authority's treatment of gay married couples was "discriminatory in nature" and they should be afforded equal treatment.

"The differential treatment in the present cases is a more severe form of indirect discrimination than most cases because the criterion is one which same-sex couples can never meet," the judges said in their ruling.

This development has been welcomed by the concerned individuals. Rights group Hong Kong Marriage Equality also welcomed the decision saying it had made clear "that discrimination and unequal treatment on the ground of sexual orientation has no place in public policy decisions".

Hong Kong's top court in September ruled against same-sex marriage but acknowledged the need for same-sex couples "for access to an alternative legal framework to meet basic social requirements".

The government was given two years to come up with the framework.

A Hong Kong court in September sided with a married lesbian couple who argued that both women should have parental status over their child born via reciprocal IVF.

Activists in other parts of Asia are watching Hong Kong's courts in the hope that their rulings could influence campaigns for reform elsewhere.

Source: Reuter

香港法院決定給予同性伴侶在香港平等的住房權利

週二（2023 年 10 月 17 日），香港政府拒絕同性已婚夫婦租賃和擁有公共住房的權利的請求已被法院駁回。

法院作出的判決稱，這是“本質上的歧視”，完全剝奪了此類夫婦的權利。

香港上訴法院的裁決是香港同性戀權利倡導者一系列法律進展中的最新一項。

政府對高等法院的兩項裁決提出質疑，稱該市住房管理局將在國外結婚的同性伴侶排除在公共住房之外是「違憲和非法的」。

上訴包括兩個案件，第一個是政府拒絕永久居民與其丈夫租用公屋的申請，因為他們在加拿大的婚姻在香港無效。

第二個是一對同性伴侶，他們共同擁有一套政府資助單位，但因他們在英國結婚而被政府拒絕，而香港也不承認他們的婚姻。

上訴法院法官潘傑里夫（Jeremy Poon）、巴爾馬（Aarif Barma）和區托馬斯（Thomas Au）在一份書面判決中表示，當局對同性已婚夫婦的待遇“本質上是歧視”，他們應該得到平等待遇。

法官在裁決中表示： “本案中的差別待遇是比大多數案件更嚴重的間接歧視形式，因為這一標準是同性伴侶永遠無法達到的。”

這項進展受到有關人士的歡迎。 人權組織香港婚姻平權組織也對此決定表示歡迎，並表示該決定明確表示「基於性取向的歧視和不平等待遇不應出現在公共政策決策中」。

香港最高法院九月裁定反對同性婚姻，但承認同性伴侶需要「獲得替代法律框架以滿足基本社會要求」。

政府有兩年的時間來制定該框架。

九月份，香港一家法院支持了一對已婚女同性戀夫婦，他們認為，對於透過相互試管受精出生的孩子，兩名女性都應該擁有父母身份。

亞洲其他地區的活動人士正在關注香港法院，希望他們的裁決能影響其他地區的改革運動。