A step forward to more enlightened thinking.
http://rthk.hk/rthk/news/englishnews...0513&56&921469HK transexual woman allowed to wed
13-05-2013
A transexual woman will be allowed to marry her boyfriend after the SAR's top court allowed her appeal.
The Court of Final Appeal found by a majority four to one that the Basic Law and the Bill of Rights protected the right to marry.
However, the court said it would not implement the judgement for the next 12 months, to allow the government time to consider amending the law.
The marriage registry had refused the transexual's request because her birth certificate still classed her as male.
"The right to marry guaranteed by our constitution extends to the right of a post-operative transsexual to marry in the reassigned capacity," the ruling, co-written by Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma and Permanent Judge Robert Ribeiro, said.
"In present-day multi-cultural Hong Kong where people profess many different religious faiths or none at all... procreation is no longer (if it ever was) regarded as essential to marriage," it added.
The ruling said that references to "woman" and "female" in Hong Kong's marriage law should include post-operative male to female transsexuals.
Permanent Judge Patrick Chan, who voted against the ruling, said including post-operative transsexuals in the definition of "man" and "woman" was "a radical change of the traditional concept of marriage".
"There is no evidence that the social attitudes in Hong Kong towards the traditional concept of marriage and the marriage institution have fundamentally altered," he said, adding that changes should only be made after "wide public consultation".
The transexual known as W - who's in her 30s - took her case to the Court of Final Appeal after a lower court ruled against her in 2010.
"The effect of this decision is that W will be allowed to marry, and should be allowed to marry her boyfriend," her lawyer, Michael Vidler, said after the ruling was announced.
"This is a case about sexual minorities being recognised and that their rights are just as important as everyone else's," Mr Vidler said of what he called a "landmark decision".
The transexual - who was not in court - said in a statement read by Mr Vidler: "I have lived my life as a woman and treated as a woman in all respects except as regards to my right to marry. This decision rights that wrong.
"I am very happy that the court of final appeal now recognises my desire to marry my boyfriend one day and that that desire is no different to that of any other women who seek the same here in Hong Kong. This is a victory for all women in Hong Kong."