Hong Kong’s top court rules in favour of equal inheritance and housing benefits for same-sex couples

Hong Kong’s top court on Tuesday upheld earlier rulings that favored subsidized housing benefits and equal inheritance rights for same sex married couples. This landmark ruling reflects growing social acceptance of LGBTQ rights in the city.

The Court of Final Appeal's rejection of the government's appeals concluded several years of legal disputes concerning the differential treatment of overseas-married same-sex couples under Hong Kong's Housing Authority policies and two inheritance laws.

The unanimous rulings are anticipated to significantly influence the lives of same-sex couples, who have historically been granted fewer rights than their heterosexual counterparts in the global financial center.

In his judgement, Chief Justice Andrew Cheung said exclusionary housing policies were argued to be beneficial to opposite-sex married couples because they increase the supply of subsidized housing for them and thereby support the institution of traditional families.

But Cheung said authorities failed to provide evidence showing the potential impact on opposite-sex couples if those policies were relaxed.

“The challenged policies cannot be justified,” he wrote.

On the inheritance laws, judges Roberto Ribeiro and Joseph Fok ruled that the disputed provisions are “discriminatory and unconstitutional" in their written judgement.

Hong Kong does not recognize same-sex marriage, prompting some couples to marry elsewhere.

Currently, the city only recognizes same-sex marriage for certain purposes such as taxation, civil service benefits and dependent visas. Numerous concessions from the government have been achieved via legal challenges, and there has been an increasing societal acceptance of same-sex marriage in the city.

In September 2023, the top court ruled that the government should provide a framework for recognizing same-sex partnerships. This ruling, along with other successful legal challenges brought by members of the LGBTQ community, made Hong Kong the only place in China to grant such recognition for same-sex couples.

Separate rulings in 2020 and 2021 by a lower court determined that the housing policies at issue in Tuesday's cases breached the constitutional right to equality, and that the exclusion of same-sex spouses from inheritance law benefits amounted to illegal discrimination.

The government had challenged these decisions at the Court of Appeal but subsequently lost in October 2023. It then took the cases to the top court.

Nick Infinger, who first launched a judicial review against the Housing Authority in 2018, told reporters that Tuesday's rulings “acknowledged same-sex couples can love each other and deserve to live together."

“This is not only fighting for me and for my partner, but this is fighting for all the same-sex couples in Hong Kong,” he said outside the court building.

But he added he was still “a bit pessimistic” about whether Hong Kong could become like Taiwan and Thailand in legalizing same-sex marriage.

(With AP inputs)