ALBAWABA - As the LGBTQ+ community continues to fight for equality, Hong Kong's top court today prepares to rule on whether to recognize same-sex marriage and legalize it.
The case brought by activist Jimmy Sham, which is set to be ruled upon today, will be the first time Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal has directly addressed the issue of same-sex marriage.
Starting his fight to have Hong Kong legally recognize his marriage to a same-sex partner, which was registered in New York nearly a decade ago, in 2018, Sham's attempts failed to acquire recognition.
In his most recent setback, in August 2022, appeal judges declared that Hong Kong's constitutional amendment "only allows heterosexual couples access to the institution of marriage".
Sham claims that the city's ban on same-sex marriage violates his right to equality and that the lack of a policy alternative, such as civil marriages, impacts his right to privacy.
Gender studies scholar Suen Yiu-tung said Hong Kong decriminalized sexual acts between adult men in 1991 but still has "no protection against discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity".
Local courts have struck down discriminatory policies "domain-by-domain" but that approach resulted in a "really, really long journey", Suen told AFP.
Across all Asian countries, only Nepal and Taiwan have sex marriage legalized, meanwhile, lawmakers in South Korea are fighting to draft legislation that would recognize same-sex partnerships.
Hong Kong's legislators have been looking warmly toward passing laws that advance LGBTQ equality. However, LGBTQ+ rights advocacy has partly gone underground after Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020, following huge and violent pro-democracy protests.
Sham, a prominent democracy advocate, is one of the dozens of activists behind bars awaiting prosecution under the security law on charges unrelated to LGBTQ rights.
