Hong Kong court affirms equal housing rights for same-sex couples

Hong Kong

In a landmark decision, a Hong Kong court on Tuesday (Oct 17) rejected the government's attempt to deny same-sex couples the right to rent and own public housing. This ruling, issued by the Court of Appeal in Hong Kong, marks a substantial legal victory for LGBTQ+ rights advocates in the region. The government had challenged two previous High Court rulings that deemed it unconstitutional and unlawful for the city's housing authority to exclude same-sex couples who had wed abroad from accessing public housing.

Two key cases

This appeal involved two distinct cases.

In one case, a permanent resident's application to rent a public flat with his husband was declined because their marriage in Canada was not recognised in Hong Kong.

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The second case involved a same-sex couple who were denied joint ownership of a government-subsidised flat due to their marriage in Britain not being recognised in Hong Kong, reported Reuters. 

Court of Appeal ruling

The Court of Appeal, comprising justices Jeremy Poon, Aarif Barma, and Thomas Au, concluded in a written judgment that the housing authority's treatment of married same-sex couples was discriminatory and that they should be granted 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,” said the ruling by the judges, according to reports. 

One of the individuals involved in the second case, Henry Li, expressed his approval of the ruling on Facebook.

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The rights group Hong Kong Marriage Equality also welcomed the decision, saying that it sends a clear message that discrimination and unequal treatment based on "sexual orientation should have no place in public policy decisions."

Same-sex marriage in Hong Kong 

Hong Kong does not have laws that explicitly allow same-sex marriage. However, there have been some developments and legal challenges in the region that may have had an impact on this issue since then.