The plaintiff Nick Infinger outside the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong on Tuesday, after the court upheld earlier rulings granting public housing benefits and inheritance rights to same-sex married couples. Credit: Peter Parks/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Hong Kong's top court on Tuesday upheld three earlier rulings that favoured granting public housing and inheritance rights to married same-sex couples, citing equality provisions in the city's mini-constitution.
The unanimous ruling by Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal is the latest legal victory for the city's LGBTQ+ community since 2023.
Judges Andrew Cheung, Robert Ribeiro, Joseph Fok, Johnson Lam and Frank Stock said in a written ruling they rejected the government's arguments that same-sex and opposite sex couples were not comparable in terms of their rights to public housing.
Chief Judge Cheung acknowledged the limited resources officials work with but said this "in no way lessens the necessity of allocating social welfare benefits on a rational and justifiable basis, free from discrimination."
Fok and Ribeiro wrote in another written ruling that existing inheritance rules were "discriminatory and unconstitutional".
The government's challenge to the top court came after the lower Court of Appeal earlier upheld rulings granting same-sex couples who married overseas subsidised housing rights and inheritance rights in three cases.
One involved the city's Housing Authority declining to consider an application by permanent resident Nick Infinger to rent a public flat with his husband, because their marriage in Canada was not recognised in Hong Kong.
In the other, same-sex couple Edgar Ng and his husband Henry Li were denied joint-ownership of a government-subsidised flat because their marriage in Britain was not recognised in Hong Kong.
Ng also launched the third case, expressing fears that if he died without leaving a will, he would not be able to pass his property to his husband under the city's inheritance laws.
Li took over the two cases after Ng took his own life in 2020 after years of depression.
Speaking outside the court after the ruling, Infinger said he knew of other couples who wanted to create a home but did not have the means to stage a legal battle.
"Today's court rulings recognised that same-sex couples can love each other and deserve to live together," Infinger said, waving an LGBTQ+ rainbow towel.
"This is not only fighting for me and my partner but this is fighting for all the same-sex couples in Hong Kong."
Li honoured his late partner Ng in a Facebook post.
"Today, November 26, 2024, our case has finally come to an end. I am grateful to the court for affirming your suffering and for your dedication to the equal rights for LGBTQ," Li wrote.
Hong Kong's top court last September ruled against same-sex marriage but acknowledged the need for same-sex couples to access alternative legal frameworks to meet "basic social requirements".
The government was given two years to produce the framework. Officials have yet to comment on Tuesday's ruling.
Last year, the top court ruled that the policy of barring transgender people from changing the sex shown on their ID cards unless they underwent full gender reassignment surgery violated their rights.
Jerome Yau, co-founder of Hong Kong Marriage Equality, told the media that "the court made it very clear that same-sex marriage is just the same as heterosexual marriage".
香港最高法院支持同性戀夫婦的住房權
香港最高法院週二維持了先前的三項裁決，這些裁決有利於向已婚同性伴侶授予公共住房和繼承權，並引用了香港小憲法中的平等條款。
香港終審法院的一致裁決是該市 LGBTQ+ 群體自 2023 年以來最新的法律勝利。
法官Andrew Cheung、Robert Ribeiro、Joseph Fok、Johnson Lam和Frank Stock在一份書面裁決中表示，他們駁回了政府關於同性和異性伴侶在公共住房權利方面不具有可比性的論點。
首席法官張承認官員的工作資源有限，但表示這「絕不會減少在合理、合理、不受歧視的基礎上分配社會福利的必要性」。
霍克和里貝羅在另一份書面裁決中寫道，現有的繼承規則是「歧視性且違憲的」。
下級上訴法院早些時候在三起案件中維持了授予在海外結婚的同性伴侶補貼住房權和繼承權的裁決，之後政府向最高法院提出了挑戰。
其中一宗涉及香港房屋委員會拒絕考慮永久居民尼克·英芬格(Nick Infinger)與其丈夫合租公屋的申請，因為他們在加拿大的婚姻在香港不被承認。
在另一起案例中，同性夫婦吳埃德加（Edgar Ng）和他的丈夫李亨利（Henry Li）被拒絕共同擁有政府資助的公寓，因為他們在英國的婚姻在香港不被承認。
吳還發起了第三起案件，表示擔心如果他去世時沒有留下遺囑，他將無法根據該市的繼承法將財產傳給他的丈夫。
吳先生在經歷了多年的憂鬱症後於2020年結束了自己的生命，李接手了這兩起案件。
裁決後，英芬格在法庭外發表講話說，他知道還有其他夫婦想要建造一棟房子，但沒有能力進行法律訴訟。
「今天的法院裁決承認同性伴侶可以彼此相愛，應該生活在一起，」英芬格揮舞著 LGBTQ+ 彩虹毛巾說道。
“這不僅是為了我和我的伴侶而戰，也是為了香港所有同性伴侶而戰。”
李在臉書上發文紀念已故的搭檔吳恩達。
「今天，2024 年 11 月 26 日，我們的案件終於結束了。我感謝法院對你的痛苦的肯定，以及你對 LGBTQ 平等權利的奉獻，」李寫道。
香港最高法院去年九月裁定反對同性婚姻，但承認同性伴侶需要尋求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。 官員尚未對週二的裁決發表評論。
去年，最高法院裁定，禁止跨性別者改變身分證上顯示的性別，除非他們接受全面的變性手術，這項政策侵犯了他們的權利。
香港婚姻平權聯合創始人邱騰華對媒體表示，「法院明確表示，同性婚姻與異性婚姻是一樣的」。
Source: Reuters
Commentaires