A Hong Kong court has handed a victory to the LGBTQ community by rejecting two appeals from the Housing Authority relating to the public housing rights of same-sex couples.

The Court of Appeal on Tuesday upheld two lower court decisions that the spousal policies of the city’s Public Rental Housing scheme and Home Ownership Scheme were unlawful and unconstitutional. The administrative measures breached the Basic Law provision that all Hong Kong residents shall be equal before the law, the court reaffirmed.

The appeals stemmed from two separate judicial reviews filed in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Nick Infinger launched his legal bid in 2018 after his application for public rental housing was declined by the government. The authorities had said his relationship with his partner, whom he married in Canada in 2018, fell outside the ordinary understanding of “husband” and “wife” as adopted by the Housing Authority.

Infinger argued that the policy was illegal and unconstitutional, as they constituted unjustified discrimination against him and his partner on the basis of sexual orientation.

See also: Explainer: LGBTQ rights in Hong Kong – breakthroughs and bitter court battles against discriminatory laws

The other judicial review was lodged in 2019 by Edgar Ng, who later took his own life in 2020. Ng had challenged the Housing Authority’s refusal to recognise same-sex spouses as “spouses,” or other “family members” of subsidised flat owners who married overseas.

Ng and his partner Henry Li had lived together in a public rental housing unit shortly after they got married in the UK in 2017. But their living situation was reported to the Housing Authority via anonymous letters that Li was residing in a flat leased by Ng, and Li failed to register as an authorised applicant of the public housing flat owing to the Housing Authority’s policy.

The pair subsequently decided to jointly purchase a flat under the Home Ownership Scheme. But the Housing Authority refused to allow Ng to make the purchase with Li as a same-sex spouse, nor did it consider Li as a family member of Ng.

The couple argued that the spousal policy was “unlawful and unconstitutional, and amounted to an “unjustified restriction” of their rights.

Summarising the respectively rulings by then-Court of First Instance judge Anderson Chow, who oversaw both judicial reviews, a three-judge appeal panel said on Tuesday that the court decided that married same-sex couples should be treated as equal to heterosexual couples in the provision of public or subsidised housing.

“Their need for affordable housing and a home to live together as a family and their wish to achieve home ownership on a joint basis are not intrinsically different. In the premises, there is differential treatment based on the prohibited ground of sexual orientation,” Justice of Appeal Thomas Au wrote on behalf of Chief Judge of the High Court Jeremy Poon and Justice of Appeal Aarif Barma in a 102-page English judgement handed down on Tuesday.

The Housing Authority argued that Chow failed to give “heavy weight” to the Basic Law provisions on religious freedom and personal freedom. The judge also failed to attach weight to the article stipulating that the Hong Kong government shall formulate policies on the development and improvement of the social welfare system based on economic conditions and social needs, it contested.

The government body also argued that the spousal policies in question only involved indirect discrimination. There was less need for the Housing Authority to justify why there was a differential treatment, it said.

By making this argument, the appeal panel said the Housing Authority in effect admitted that its policy “specifically targeted same‑sex couples for ‘deterrence,’” as in to deter them from purchasing a HOS flat. Judge Chow was therefore “clearly correct” to adopt a higher standard in reviewing the two judicial reviews.

The appeal judges eventually rejected all grounds of appeal.

In a statement released through his lawyers, Li said he was “grateful” for Tuesday’s judgement, but it “reminded [him] painfully” that his husband and the original judicial review applicant was no longer around to witness the victory.

The couple simply wanted to be able to live together in their own home lawfully, a “humble wish” shared by many couples in the city, he said. But such wish was “cruelly denied” by the Housing Authority on the basis of sexual orientation, he said.

“It has been more than 4 years since this court case started. I sincerely hope that upon thoughtful consideration, the Housing Authority would not appeal and let this matter rest, and at last let Edgar rest in peace,” Li said in an English statement released by law firm Daly & Associates.

HKFP has reached out to the Housing Authority for comment.

Tuesday’s judgement reaffirmed the principles that public policies should protect all individuals from discrimination and unfair treatment based on their sexual orientation, Advocacy group HK Marriage Equality said in a Chinese statement issued on Tuesday.

The NGO called on the government to work with relevant stakeholders to design a comprehensive framework for recognising same-sex relationships.

“To avoid unnecessary and costly litigation, the government should not handle the recognition of same-sex relationships in a piecemeal manner,” it said.

In September, the city’s top court handed down handed a partial victory to LGBTQ advocate Jimmy Sham, ruling that the government has not fulfilled its constitutional duty to provide any legal framework for same-sex relationships to be recognised.

The government was given two years to develop a mechanism that recognises same-sex relationships before the court could say the government was in breach of the law.

Correction 18/10/23: Owing to a typo, a previous version of this article referred to the Hospital Authority, rather than the Housing Authority. We regret the error.

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By Rebecca Bailey

A Chinese journalist who popularised the country’s stalled #MeToo movement and a labour activist were due to face trial Friday, with supporters voicing concerns for their health after two years in detention.

Sophia Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing were arrested on 19 September 2021, under the broad charge of “inciting subversion of state power” — but their trial in the southern city of Guangzhou was only announced this week, according to their supporters.

Calls to the court where they were expected to appear went unanswered.

The case shows how “the Chinese government has to a large extent eliminated the space for civil society activism”, Yaqiu Wang, China research director at Freedom House, told AFP.

“Authorities have arrested and silenced so many people, by this point, people can be thrown in jail for any perceived infraction of what is permitted, and the space for what is permitted is constantly shrinking.”

Authorities have not given details on Huang and Wang’s arrests.

The two were involved in running a weekly gathering in Guangzhou, a member of a group of supporters told AFP.

With “the whole of civil society fragmented, this was a way to reunite and reconnect, to foster a new network in Guangzhou”, they told AFP.

Police subsequently cracked down on the group, questioning over 70 people and detaining some over the course of several days, they said.

“There was so much PTSD after this attack (on the group)… Some activists had to leave Guangzhou, and (the community) is just not able to join together or connect anymore,” they added.

Huang and Wang’s trial is being held behind closed doors, and it is not known when their sentence will be announced.

Health concerns

Huang wrote on social media about her experience of workplace sexual harassment as a young journalist at a Chinese news agency, in the wake of the global #MeToo movement.

She had been arrested before, after returning from reporting on Hong Kong‘s enormous pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Supporters said that her health had deteriorated significantly in detention at that time.

In February, the group said she had stopped menstruating and had experienced dramatic weight loss, as well as bad back pain.

“Her self-appointed lawyer was forced to withdraw from the case and replaced by government-appointed lawyer(s), who has not communicated with Huang’s family and friends,” a statement said.

The group member told AFP they had no further updates on either Huang or Wang’s health.

Both activists have been cut off from outside information, they said, with the detention facility refusing to pass on requested books, and granting no access to families or friends.

The families of the pair had been visited by police again this week and told not to come to Guangzhou for the trial, they said.

On Thursday, 32 NGOs released a statement demanding the pair’s release.

“These baseless charges are motivated purely by the Chinese authorities’ relentless determination to crush critical voices,” said Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for China, in a Thursday statement.

“But activists in China refuse to be silenced despite the serious risks of raising their voices to address so-called ‘sensitive’ issues.”

The member of the supporters’ group who spoke to AFP said the pair had understood the risks.

“You want to make social change, you commit to social justice, you commit to the outcome,” they said.

“As a very close friend of theirs, I know they don’t regret what they’re doing.”

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A Hong Kong court has sided with a lesbian couple who argued that both women should have parental status over their child born via “reciprocal IVF”, a ruling hailed as a win for the LGBTQ community.

The medical procedure of reciprocal in vitro fertilisation (RIVF) allows two women to share in the process of childbearing and is credited with helping same-sex couples start families.

Two women who took part in RIVF launched a legal challenge last year after the Hong Kong government recognised only one of them as the mother of their son, citing existing family laws.

On Friday, judge Queeny Au-Yeung at the court of first instance ruled that the government’s non-recognition was a form of discrimination against the couple’s son.

Their child was “discriminated as to his birth in the sense that, unlike other children, he does not have a co-parent, genetically linked to him,” the judge wrote in her ruling.

The court declared that the woman initially denied legal status should be recognised as a “parent at common law”, saying the move would align her legal status with reality.

“The court should be astute to the changing world where people build families in different manners other than through a married or heterosexual relationship,” the judge added.

In RIVF, a lesbian couple can jointly take part in childbearing as one woman’s egg, fertilised externally with the aid of a sperm donor, is transferred to the other woman who carries the pregnancy to term.

The procedure was introduced in the late 2000s and can now be performed without restriction in more than a dozen European countries, according to an academic survey.

As Hong Kong does not recognise same-sex marriages, the two women in the case — who were granted anonymity by the court — were married and underwent RIVF in South Africa.

Lawyer Evelyn Tsao, who represented one of the women, called the ruling “one giant step for the rainbow families in our LGBTQ community”.

“For the first time, the court expressly states that children of same-sex couples are discriminated by the current legislation,” Tsao told AFP.

Barrister Azan Marwah, one of the lawyers who argued the case in court, said on social media that the ruling was a first in the common law world.

The Department of Justice told AFP it was “studying the judgment in detail and considering the way forward”.

Earlier this month, Hong Kong’s top court ruled against same-sex marriage but ordered the government to provide an “alternative framework”, such as civil unions, to protect the rights of homosexual couples.

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Hong Kong’s equality watchdog has said it has “no comment” on last week’s breakthrough gay rights ruling from the top court, as sexual minorities are not protected by anti-discrimination legislation.

Last Tuesday, the Court of Final Appeal handed a partial victory to LGBTQ advocates, ruling that the government had not fulfilled its constitutional duty to provide any legal framework for same-sex relationships to be recognised.

See also: Explainer: LGBTQ rights in Hong Kong – breakthroughs and bitter court battles against discriminatory laws

The court made a declaration that it was unconstitutional of the government not to have alternative means for the legal recognition of same-sex relationships – such as civil unions – and that it had to provide such frameworks.

However, the ruling was not explicitly welcomed by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC): “The Court of Final Appeal’s Judgment relates to a case concerning the recognition of same-sex marriage overseas in Hong Kong, which is outside the scope of the existing anti-discrimination ordinances,” a spokesperson told HKFP. “Therefore the EOC has no comment.”

‘Case has not completely concluded’

The top court’s declaration was suspended for two years, meaning that it will give the government two years to come up with a mechanism that recognises same-sex relationships before it will say whether the government is in breach of the law.

When asked by HKFP whether the authorities will respect the ruling, a Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau spokesperson said that “[s]ince the parties may lodge written submissions on relief as directed by the Court, the case has not completely concluded and it is inappropriate to give any comment at this juncture.”

The Chief Executive’s Office also did not directly answer when asked if the government would respect the ruling. It told HKFP last week that it had no comment, as it referred the enquiry to other departments.

Whilst same-sex sexual activity was legalised in 1991, Hong Kong has no laws to protect the LGBTQ community from discrimination in employment, the provision of goods and services, or from hate speech. Equal marriage remains illegal, although a 2023 survey showed that 60 per cent of Hongkongers support it. Despite repeated government appeals, courts have granted those who married – or who entered civil partnerships – abroad some recognition in terms of tax, spousal visas and public housing.

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Hong Kong’s top court ruled in favour of recognising same-sex partnerships on Tuesday, saying in its judgement that “the absence of legal recognition has been seen to be essentially discriminatory and demeaning to same-sex couples.” 

It marked the latest in a long series of litigations surrounding LGBTQ issues, as same-sex couples in the city have been forced to carve out rights from laws often ruled as discriminatory since the city decriminalised sexual acts between gay men in 1991. Lesbian sex was never explicitly outlawed, although stigma surrounded such relationships, too.

LGBTQ rights remains one of the areas in which the city stands apart from mainland China, where same-sex sexual acts have been legal since 1997 but recent years have seen a crackdown on the community.

LGBTQ litigations

Marriage equality 

Tuesday’s ruling marked the culmination of a five-year court battle for marriage equality launched by pro-democracy and LGBTQ rights activist Jimmy Sham. 

Sham, who has since been detained since March 2021 under the national security law, married his partner in New York in 2013. He later launched a legal challenge in Hong Kong, arguing that his right to equality, protection against discrimination and privacy were violated by the failure of the city’s laws to allow same-sex couples to marry, failure to offer an alternative framework to recognise same-sex relationships, and failure to legally acknowledge overseas same-sex unions. 

That bid was dismissed in 2020, and a subsequent appeal went the same way in August 2022, before the Court of Final Appeal agreed last November to hear Sham’s appeal, saying the points raised were of great importance. 

In the judgement handed down on Tuesday, Chief Justice Andrew Cheung, Permanent Judges Roberto Ribeiro, Joseph Fok, Johnson Lam, and Non-Permanent Judge Patrick Keane, rejected Sham’s argument that gay couples had the right to marry under the city’s mini-constitution the Basic Law and its Bill of Rights, saying that right was enshrined for heterosexual partnerships. The appeal panel also dismissed an assertion that failing to recognise same-sex unions entered into abroad violated the right to equality. 

But judges Ribeiro, Fok and Keane acknowledged that there was a need for same-sex couples to have access to an alternative legal framework to meet basic social requirements, and gave the government two years to come up with that framework.

Jerome Yau, co-founder of Hong Kong Marriage Equality, told HKFP on Tuesday the ruling marked a “major development” for the recognition of same-sex marriage in Hong Kong.

Yau was echoed by Suen Yiu-tung, an associate professor of gender studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who spoke at a press conference after Tuesday’s court proceedings. 

“Today, Hong Kong’s court finally took a step and said clearly that there should be an alternative framework for the legal recognition of same-sex relationships,” Suen said. “But the content of the alternative framework, or what the core rights are, remain unclear.”

Citing a 2019 study by the Equal Opportunities Commission, Suen said same-sex couples received differential treatment compared to heterosexual couples in more than 100 legal areas. Those areas included marriage, housing, employment, medical, inheritance, immigration and more.

Public support for granting same-sex couples the same rights as those enjoyed by married heterosexual couples has grown in the past decade, according to a long-term research project run by the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the University of North Carolina in the US. 

The latest findings, published in May, showed that 60 per cent of Hongkongers who took part in a survey supported same-sex marriage, up from 38 per cent in 2013 when the poll was first conducted.

In 2013, the Court of Final Appeal gave transexual individuals who had undergone sex reassignment surgery (SRS) the right to marry as their affirmed gender.

Gender markers 

Hong Kong’s top court in February ruled in favour of two transgender men, affirming that it was not necessary for them to undergo invasive full SRS to change the gender marker on their identity cards. 

Like Sham’s long journey through the judicial system, the legal challenge against the government policy which stated that SRS was required to change an individual’s gender marker lasted five years. Launched by Henry Tse and two other trans men “Q” and “R,” it was dismissed by the city’s lower court. Tse and Q later lodged an appeal at the Court of Appeal, which upheld the government’s stance, before being heard at the Court of Final Appeal. 

In the written judgement handed down in February, a panel of five judges sided with the by then two appellants, Tse and Q, ruling that the policy violated the right to privacy under the Bill of Rights and “imposes an unacceptably harsh burden on the individuals concerned.”

See also: Hong Kong trans activist Henry Tse fought for the right to be recognised as a man without full surgery – and won

The panel also called SRS “at the invasive end of the treatment spectrum for gender dysphoria” and “not medically required by many transgender persons.” 

Following the ruling, HKFP learned in March that the Immigration Department had suspended accepting applications to change gender markers, even from those who had completed full SRS. 

The Immigration Department said it was “studying the judgement carefully and reviewing” its policy, adding that it would “seek legal advice on follow up actions to comply with the judgement.” It did not give a timeframe for its policy review, telling HKFP only that it aimed to complete it within “reasonable time.” 

Parental rights 

Same-sex parents were granted a pathway to joint guardianship of their children after a landmark Court of First Instance judgement in 2021. 

The court ruled in May that year that a non-biological mother should be granted joint custody of her children with her ex-partner, who was the biological mother.

Following the separation of the couple, the children’s birth mother sought to formalise the non-biological mother’s parental rights to guarantee her legal status to her children. Given that both partners always shared the care of their children, the court said it would not be in the children’s best interests if the application was unsuccessful.

While it remains that only a biological parent may be listed as legal parent – which, prior to the ruling, caused problems for couples who chose to have children with the assistance of a sperm or egg donor – it is now possible to apply to the court to formalise the parental rights of a non-biological partner. 

Spousal benefits, tax assessment 

In June 2019, the Court of Final Appeal ruled that employment-related spousal benefits such as medical coverage and joint tax assessment should be extended to same-sex couples who married overseas.

That case centred on a challenge put forward by immigration officer Angus Leung in 2015, whose employer, the Civil Service Bureau, refused to change Leung’s marital status or grant benefits to his partner, whom he married in New Zealand in 2014. 

Leung also argued that he was discriminated against on the basis of his sexual orientation by the Inland Revenue Department, which said he was not entitled to opt for joint assessment with his partner because same-sex marriage was not recognised. 

In 2017, the Court of First Instance sided with Leung in the spousal benefit application, with judge Anderson Chow writing that allowing benefits to same-sex partners would not constitute indirect legalisation of same-sex marriage.

However, the decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal in June 2018, which said that the Basic Law favours heterosexual marriage and therefore it is not discriminatory for gay people to be excluded from marrying

Leung was granted permission to take his appeal to the city’s top court that September.

In a unanimous decision, the Court of Final Appeal judges ruled that Hong Kong’s civil service and Inland Revenue Department both failed to justify their policy towards Leung, and by extension other same-sex married couples.

The judges wrote that the protection of heterosexual marriage was a legitimate aim, but there was no connection between that and the policies of Hong Kong’s civil service and taxation authority.

Dependent visas

Same-sex spouses have been eligible for dependent visas since a landmark 2018 case involving a woman known as QT, who was forced to stay in Hong Kong on a tourist visa after her partner, with whom she was in a civil union, moved to the city for work on the grounds that their partnership was not recognised under Hong Kong law. 

QT filed a legal challenge against the Immigration Department decision in 2014, which was dismissed by the Court of First Instance in 2016. However, the Court of Appeal reversed that ruling the following year, prompting the Immigration Department to file an appeal to the city’s top court.

In a unanimous judgement handed down in July 2018, the court agreed with the Court of Appeal that the differential treatment towards QT – namely denying her a spousal visa on the basis of marital status – amounted to unlawful discrimination.

See also: Hong Kong’s ‘blind spot’ – A British woman’s years-long fight against the gov’t to stay with her wife

The case was closely watched by LQBTQ advocates and the city’s business community, stoked by fears that if the Immigration Department’s policy held, it would have reduced the pool of quality foreign employees.

Inheritance rights 

While Hong Kong’s High Court ruled in 2020 that same-sex couples should enjoy equal rights under the city’s inheritance laws, the government has sought to appeal that decision. 

The September 2020 judgement, in which a judge said “the differential treatment accorded to same-sex married couples and opposite-sex married couples… cannot be justified, and constitutes unlawful discrimination,” was seen as a victory for the city’s LGBTQ community. 

It came after a legal challenge was filed by Edgar Ng over concerns his partner, Henry Li, would not be able to inherit a government-subsidised flat bought in Ng’s name in 2018 in the absence of a will. The couple were married in the United Kingdom in 2017.  

The court of appeal heard the government’s appeal against that decision last December, with the government’s lawyer arguing that treating heterosexual and same-sex couples differently under the city’s two inheritance laws could be justified because they were “materially distinguished.” 

HKFP reported in December that the appeal judgement was expected within six months, however, it has yet to be handed down. 

After death arrangements 

In late 2020, Ng, who had suffered from depression, died by suicide. Months later, Li launched a legal bid against the government for refusing to allow him to identify Ng’s remains and from attending to administrative arrangements surrounding his death without first receiving authorisation from Ng’s mother. 

A year later, Li dropped his challenge after the government clarified its position and regulations on after-death arrangements for surviving same-sex spouses in a letter to Li in July 2021. 

That October, the court heard that position, which stated “there is no distinction between same-sex and opposite-sex spouses for the term ‘spouse’” under the Coroners’ Ordinance.  

However, Li’s legal representative later noted that the government’s position excluded a host of other rights and treatments for same-sex widows and widowers in after-death matters, including the right to consent to organ donation for education or research, and their right to be buried together. 

Access to subsidised housing 

In March 2020, the High Court ruled that excluding same-sex married couples from access to government-subsidised housing as “ordinary families” was unconstitutional and unlawful.

The decision came after Nick Infinger, who married his partner in Canada in 2018, launched a legal bid that same year challenging the Housing Authority’s refusal to consider his application for public housing because his same-sex union was not recognised.

The court ruled in favour of Infinger, concluding the Housing Authority’s policy “plainly cannot be justified as a measure to ensure the administrative effectiveness in implementing the Housing Authority’s PRH policy, which is to address the housing needs of low-income families.”

A second case surrounding the Housing Authority’s Home Ownership Scheme was brought to court by Ng before his death, with Li taking over after his partner’s suicide. Ng launched the legal challenge after buying a government-subsidised flat and being told that Li was not eligible for joint-ownership because their marriage was not recognised.

In June 2021, the court sided with Li and his late partner, saying that the city’s subsidised housing policies, which do not acknowledge same-sex partners as a tenant’s family member, “constitute unlawful discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation.” 

Like the court’s ruling on equal inheritance rights, both of these rulings have been appealed by the government in a hearing last February.

The judgement has yet to be handed down.

Transgender public toilet access 

The High Court in January heard a challenge to the city’s public convenience laws, which argued that transgender people should be allowed to use public toilets designated for their chosen gender before they have undergone surgery.

The legal bid filed by K, who identifies as a male but was born a woman, sought to amend the Public Conveniences (Conduct and Behaviour) Regulations to allow a transgender person undergoing real life experience (RLE) treatment under the certification and care of a doctor to use public toilets of their identified gender.

RLE requires people who are transitioning to live in their identified gender consistently on a day-to-day basis, which can include the use of public conveniences of that gender.

However, the legislation in question currently criminalises people over the age of five entering public conveniences allocated for the opposite sex. As K has not yet undergone a full sex replacement surgery, at the time a requirement for changing their gender marker, they were legally banned from using male public toilets.

HKFP reported in January that a decision was expected the following month. No judgement has yet been delivered, but the ruling regarding gender markers may have implications for this case.

Age of consent, archaic laws

Perhaps the city’s first legal victory for the LGBTQ community came in 2005, when the High Court ruled that laws setting the age of consent for men who have sex with men at 21 was unconstitutional.

The age of consent for gay sex was set at 21 after it was decriminalised in 1991, higher than the age of consent for heterosexual activity, which was 16. However, it took until 2014 for the provisions to be formally removed from the Crimes Ordinance.

In 2019, another High Court ruling struck down a series of laws targeting male sexual acts for being unconstitutional because “no comparable offences exist for heterosexuals or female homosexuals.”

Two of the laws, for example, criminalised the procuring of a man for buggery or gross indecency with another man.

“These provisions are inconsistent with the right to equality… and discriminatory in nature. They are unconstitutional and should be struck down,” the written judgement read.

The government requested to amend other laws, including one that saw men face up to life in prison for having sex with a boy under the age of 16, while men who had sex with a girl under the age of 16 faced a maximum jail sentence of five years.

The judge agreed to temporarily equalise the penalty for both crimes at five years until lawmakers could write a new law.

Societal hurdles

Gay Games 2023

In 2017, Hong Kong was announced as the host city of the 11th Gay Games, prevailing over competing bids from Washington DC and Guadalajara, Mexico. It marked the first time in the 40-year history of the games it was handed to an Asian city.

The news, hailed as a stepping stone for advancing LGBTQ issues in the city, was quickly marred by attacks from conservative corners. Junius Ho, a pro-Beijing lawmaker, claimed during a Legislative Council meeting in June 2021 that Hong Kong did not want the event’s “dirty money”, adding that he was worried it might lead to the legalisation of same-sex marriage.

Originally slated for 2022, the inclusive sporting event was postponed until November and Guadalajara was added as a co-host because of the uncertainty surrounding Hong Kong’s enduring Covid-19 restrictions.

Beyond the pandemic, Gay Games Hong Kong has been hampered by a lack of government cooperation and internal strife, attracting 2,000 participants rather than the hoped-for 12,000.

Last month, the government issued a seemingly unprompted warning stating that the event must be conducted in a “lawful, safe and orderly manner.”

Government-subsidised conversion therapy

In 2003, the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau began administering an annual Equal Opportunities (Sexual Orientation) Funding Scheme to support projects promoting equality for sexual minorities.

However, since 2017, around HK$694,000 has been distributed to groups said to advocate efforts to change sexual orientation.

Hongkongers who engaged with one such Christian organisation spoke to HKFP about their experiences earlier this year. “I was torturing myself, but I rationalised it by thinking that Christians must go through pain,” Cheung said. “After all, Jesus sacrificed himself for us.”

Globally, efforts to change sexual orientation, commonly referred to as conversion therapy, have been accepted to cause long-lasting psychological damage and are viewed as inherently discriminatory. In 2020, the United Nations called for an international ban on the practice.

Only LGBTQ radio show axed

Government-funded broadcaster RTHK axed We Are Family, the city’s only radio show that promoted LGBTQ equality in July citing “programme rescheduling.”

Host Brian Leung, who fronted the show since its inception in 2006, said: “At a time when Hong Kong saw drastic changes, many things are just a matter of time, and we had mentally prepared ourselves for what may come.”

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The Education University of Hong Kong has said it will set up a task force to review the operation of orientation camps, after an 18-year-old student filed a police report alleging that she was raped at a university induction event in July.

Police said on Tuesday they had launched an investigation into the alleged rape, and into a report of voyeurism filed by another student aged 22. Both women reportedly said they were assaulted by a 28-year-old male student who attended the camp.

Dean of Students Sammy Hui said in an email to students on Tuesday that the university took allegations of sexual harassment and assault “extremely seriously,” and that it was assisting the police in the investigation.

“An emergency response mechanism has been activated, and we have already been in touch with the students concerned to provide the necessary care and counselling support,” Hui wrote in the bilingual email.

“Meanwhile, the University will set up a Taskforce to conduct a holistic review regarding the contents, guidelines and operational mechanism of orientation camps with a view to protecting the interests and well-being of students,” he continued.

The university’s Student Affairs Office will also step up emotional and counselling services for students in need.

‘Pillars of society’

Chief Executive John Lee said on Tuesday morning that sexual assault or other illegal activities on university campuses could not be tolerated.

Speaking to reporters ahead of an Executive Council meeting on Tuesday, he said university students were “regarded as pillars of society,” expected to contribute and make a positive impact in the future.

He said that schools should cooperate with law enforcement agencies to ensure that sexual assault cases were promptly addressed, and that appropriate measures should be taken if students’ actions violate the law.

“If the actions do not violate the law but conflict with the school’s regulations, the school also has a responsibility to maintain discipline on campus,” he added.

Indecent assault

Citing sources, local media reported that the rape allegedly took place at the Po Leung Kuk Jockey Club Tai Tong Holiday Camp in Yuen Long on July 23. At a different camp, it was reported that a man pulled open the curtains in a shower where the 22-year-old student was bathing.

Separately, a university student accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old student during an orientation camp for the University of Hong Kong’s nursing society last month was granted bail by a Hong Kong court on Monday.

According to the charge sheet, 20-year-old Tang Ho-yin faced two counts of indecent assault for assaulting the first-year student on two occasions during the camp. He appeared in court on Monday, after he was arrested on August 30, but was not required to enter a plea.

The arrest came three days after HKU said it had instigated an investigation into the alleged assault.

The internal probe stemmed from a Chinese-language Instagram post, in which someone who identified as a first-year HKU nursing student said there was sexual harassment and cannabis use during the three-day camp.

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Hong Kong’s top court has handed a partial victory to LGBTQ advocates, ruling that the government has not fulfilled its constitutional duty to provide any legal framework for same-sex relationships to be recognised.

The Court of Final Appeal delivered the judgement on Tuesday. As part of the judgement, the court made a declaration that it was unconstitutional of the government not to have alternative means for the legal recognition of same-sex relationships – such as civil unions – and that it had to provide such frameworks.

The declaration was suspended for two years, meaning the court gave the government two years to come up with a mechanism that recognises same-sex relationships before the court would say the government was in breach of the law.

Jerome Yau, co-founder of Hong Kong Marriage Equality, told HKFP that the ruling marked a “major development” for the recognition of same-sex marriage in Hong Kong.

Barrister Azan Marwah, who is also the legal advisor of Hong Kong Marriage Equality, told HKFP that Tuesday’s ruling was a victory for the LGBTQ community that would likely result in “real change.”

“This is not the court saying there should be full marriage equivalent to what is available to heterosexual couples. The court is saying that the government has two years to think about the appropriate status that will give in substance the correct protection to [same-sex couples],” Marwah said in a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.

“The court is saying there should be something similar to, but not the same as marriage, that provides them with a status that will give them protection,” the lawyer added.

Content of alternative framework ‘unclear’

A five-judge panel at the Court of Final Appeal heard from LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham’s legal team in June that the absence of same-sex marriage acceptance in Hong Kong sent a message that it was “less worthy” of recognition than heterosexual marriage.

The appeal panel was led by Chief Justice Andrew Cheung and also consisted of Permanent Judges Roberto Ribeiro, Joseph Fok, Johnson Lam, and Non-Permanent Judge Patrick Keane.

Sham – who has been detained under the national security law – married his partner in the United States in 2013, but their marriage was not recognised under Hong Kong law.

Permanent judges Ribeiro and Fok and non-permanent judge Keane acknowledged that there was a need for same-sex couples to access an alternative legal framework in order to meet basic social requirements.

“[T]he absence of legal recognition has been seen to be essentially discriminatory and demeaning to same-sex couples,” the judgement read.

While experts agreed that Tuesday’s court decision was a positive development, they said they were disappointed that the top court still did not recognise same-sex marriage. They also said there was little clarity on what a framework that would recognise same-sex relationships would look like.

“Today, Hong Kong’s court finally took a step and said clearly that there should be an alternative framework for the legal recognition of same-sex relationships,” Suen Yiu-tung, an associate professor of gender studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong speaking at the same press conference, said.

“But the content of the alternative framework, or what the core rights are, remain unclear,” he said.

Still, Suen said the court’s ruling that the government should provide an alternative legal framework to recognise same-sex relationships was important, because many same-sex couples faced various obstacles in their daily lives.

Citing a study by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), Suen said same-sex couples received differential treatment compared to heterosexual couples in more than 100 legal areas. Those areas included marriage, housing, employment, medical, inheritance, immigration and more, according to the report published by the EOC in June 2019.

He added the ruling of the city’s top court was “on the trajectory” of the LGBTQ rights development in other Asian countries and regions, citing the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Taiwan in 2019 and a historic ruling in Nepal in June this year which ordered the government to register same-sex marriage on a temporary basis.

Travis, who has been in a relationship with his same-sex partner for seven years, told reporters that Tuesday’s ruling was “beyond his expectation.” He said he hoped the court decision would eventually lead to the granting of rights such as spousal benefits offered by employers, as well as the right to make decisions after his partner’s passing.

Per the judgement, the government will submit written submissions to the court on a proposed framework under which same-sex relationships would be recognised.

“The definition of rights should be inclusive, rather than trying to draw on a very narrow list, which then will invite more debates in the future,” Suen said.

A five-year court battle

Activists have often criticised Hong Kong’s limited rights and protection for the LGBTQ community, seeing the judicial system as the only hope for reversing laws they say are rooted in discrimination.

Cases involving Hong Kong’s LGBTQ+ rights have often played out in the court of law, which has seen some landmark victories, including one in 2019 in which the top court sided with a gay civil servant applying for spousal benefits and tax assessment, and another two years ago when the court granted equal parental rights for same-sex partners.

Since 2018, Sham has launched a string of legal challenges to fight for the city to recognise overseas same-sex marriages.

His first bid was rejected by the Court of First Instance in September 2020 and his subsequent appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in August last year. But the top court agreed to hear the democrat’s arguments last November, saying the questions of laws he raised were of great general or public importance.

The Court of Final Appeal was asked to rule on three questions: whether the exclusion of same-sex couples from the institution of marriage was a violation of the right to equality under the Hong Kong Bill of Rights and Basic Law; if it was a violation of the right to privacy and/or equality when same-sex couples were not allowed to marry in Hong Kong and there were no alternative means of legal recognition such as civil partnerships; and whether the lack of recognition of foreign same-sex marriage violated the right to equality.

Whilst same-sex sexual activity was legalised in 1991, Hong Kong has no laws to protect the LGBTQ community from discrimination in employment, the provision of goods and services, or from hate speech. Equal marriage remains illegal, although a 2023 survey showed that 60 per cent of Hongkongers support it. Despite repeated government appeals, courts have granted those who married – or who entered civil partnerships – abroad some recognition in terms of tax, spousal visas and public housing.

Sham has been detained since March 2021 after he was denied bail in a high-profile national security case involving 47 pro-democracy figures. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit subversion in connection with an unofficial legislative primary poll held in July 2020 and is awaiting to be sentenced after the trial of his co-defendants concludes.

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The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has launched a probe into claims of indecent assault and drug use during an orientation camp organised by a nursing student society.

HKU announced on Monday that it had instigated an investigation related to an orientation event organised by the nursing society last week. The probe came days after someone who said they were a first-year HKU nursing student made online claims of sexual harassment and cannabis use during the three-day camp.

“The University is committed to promoting civility on campus. Any behaviour against this principle is intolerable,” the university said in a statement.

According to a Chinese-language Instagram post published last Saturday, a nursing student, who did not identify their gender, said there was a “very pungent smell” during a disco at the orientation camp. They later found out through their “group parents,” who were senior students leading groups of newcomers, that it was cannabis.

“The group parents of my group and my friends’ group were ingesting [cannabis] and were drunk. They left other students and I alone and we were very scared and confused during the whole activity. It was very chaotic,” the post read.

The student alleged that a senior male student leading their group touched them inappropriately and similar incidents took place in other groups: “I could feel he touched me deliberately, it made me really uncomfortable.”

The student said they did not report the alleged indecent assault to the organisers, saying they believed the organisers were friends with the male student who was said to have assaulted them.

The student went on to say that the orientation camp featured a water game, during which students were not allowed to change into dark-coloured clothes. They became “exposed” when their tops got wet, the student said, adding they received “unfriendly stares” during the event.

“I think those three days and two nights were the most painful days of my life, it brought a lot of trauma to me,” the post read.

The Nursing Society said last Saturday that it was actively reviewing and investigating matters relating to its orientation camp. The student body said people could email them regarding any complaints concerning the orientation with evidence attached.

“The matters will be dealt with impartially by our Society,” a bilingual statement on Nursing Society’s Instagram page read.

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Gay Games Hong Kong (GGHK) must be conducted in a “lawful, safe and orderly manner” whether or not events are held in public or private venues, the government has warned.

In response to media enquiries on Thursday, a government spokesperson said licences and permits may be required and government departments must process applications for the use of public venues and spaces in “strict accordance with existing procedures and criteria.”

“The organiser must comply with Hong Kong laws and regulations, regardless of where the events are held, including private venues, government venues or public spaces,” the statement read. “Many of its events will be held in private venues. The Government has reminded the organiser to observe the laws and regulations in Hong Kong, regardless of whether the events are held in private venues or not.”

It is unclear what prompted the warning. HKFP has reached out to GGHK for comment.

The press release came a day after GGHK said it had secured government-operated Queen Elizabeth Stadium for its opening and closing ceremonies, concerts and martial arts and dodgeball contests.

Other confirmed venues include: MacPherson Stadium, Jockey Club HKCFA Football Training Centre, HKC Dragon Boat Association Training Centre, Sha Tin Rowing Centre, HKU Stanley Ho Sports Centre, Victoria Recreation Club, KGV School, Kowloon Junior School and SoHo House.
AIA Vitality Park will host the festival village.

In response to HKFP’s enquiries, a Gay Games spokesperson said they had “no idea” why the government statement was issued: “We issued a press release providing a GGHK update on Wednesday 23 August, so perhaps they received media enquiries about that.”

They added that they did not interpret the statement as a warning: “As we have said all along, as any responsible organisation and event organiser would do, we will of course comply with all laws in Hong Kong. We have no problem with that at all. Our overriding goal is to deliver a safe, welcoming, joyous, diverse and inclusive event that will reflect positively on Hong Kong. Hong Kong is consistently rated as one of the world’s safest cities. We see no reason why this would change before, during or after our event.”

The Gay Games aims to promote diversity, and is open to all athletes.

Embattled games

The games have has been hampered by a lack of government support, internal wranglings and the Covid-19 pandemic. Earlier this year, three sports were axed due to low sign-ups. GGHK also expressed disappointment over the Hong Kong Football Club’s decision to withdraw its venue for the football finals, and has seen only 2,000 athletes sign up – 10,000 below the expected figure.

Hong Kong emerged as the chosen host for the 2022 Gay Games in 2017, prevailing over competing bids from Washington DC and Guadalajara, Mexico. It marked the first time in the 40-year history of the games that the event would be hosted by an Asian city. Then-leader, Carrie Lam said at the time only that she had “noted” the win.

In 2021, the competition was postponed to this year owing to the pandemic.

In 2022, organisers announced that the Games would be co-hosted by Hong Kong and Guadalajara. The Mexican city received sponsorship from the authorities and local tourism bureau. When Paris hosted the Gay Games in 2018, the French president, the mayor of Paris, and the local tourism bureau contributed financially. However, GGHK has not received any sponsorship from the Hong Kong government.

Since the games were announced, pro-establishment parties and anti-LGBT groups have been on the attack. Junius Ho, a pro-Beijing lawmaker, claimed during a Legislative Council meeting in June 2021 that Hong Kong did not want the event’s “dirty money”, adding that he was worried it might lead to the legalisation of same-sex marriage. This year, he claimed the games were a national security risk.

In June 2023, representatives from several groups staged a demonstration outside government headquarters, holding up banners that referred to the Gay Games as “indecent” and “obscene.”

Lawmakers Regina Ip and Adrian Ho from the pro-Beijing New People Party are among the few legislative members who have expressed support for Hong Kong’s hosting of the games.

Whilst same-sex sexual activity was legalised in 1991, Hong Kong has no laws to protect the LGBTQ community from discrimination in employment, the provision of goods and services, or from hate speech. Equal marriage remains illegal, although a 2023 survey showed that 60 per cent of Hongkongers support it.

Despite repeated government appeals, courts have granted those who married – or who entered civil partnerships – abroad some recognition in terms of tax, spousal visas and public housing.

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Around 2,000 athletes are expected to participate in the upcoming 2023 Gay Games, according to the organisers of the international LGBT-friendly sporting event. However, the updated number of participants is significantly lower than the original estimation of 12,000.

Lisa Lam, co-chair of Gay Games Hong Kong (GGHK), told local media during a luncheon on Wednesday that 2,000 participants from 40 countries will join the Gay Games set to take place in 3 to 11 November, including corporate teams.

“The registration number is good for now. We will keep up the momentum,” Lam said in Chinese.

The athletes mainly come from Asian cities and western countries such as the UK, France and Germany. Registration for the event, which aims to promote diversity, will close in mid-October. Organisers also hope to recruit 2,000 volunteers.

In 2021, GGHK estimated that over 12,000 people from around the world would take part in the competition, bringing HK$1 billion worth of revenue to the city, along with 3,000 volunteers and an audience of 75,000.

In a press release on Wednesday, GGHK said it was “offering fee waivers for younger people below the age of 25, as well as migrant workers, domestic helpers, and minorities, on a first-come-first-served basis.”

It also introduced the design of the bronze, silver and gold models.

Embattled games

The event has been hampered by a lack of government cooperation, internal strife and the Covid-19 pandemic. Earlier this year, three sports were axed due to a low number of sign-ups. GGHK also expressed disappointment over the Hong Kong Football Club’s decision to withdraw its venue for the football finals.

Hong Kong emerged as the chosen host for the 2022 Gay Games in 2017, prevailing over competing bids from Washington DC and Guadalajara, Mexico. It marks the first time in the 40-year history of the games that they have been handed to an Asian city.

The competition was postponed to this year owing to the pandemic, and – last year – organisers announced that the Games will be co-hosted by Hong Kong and the Mexican city of Guadalajara.

Lam said that, unlike other sporting events, GGHK had not received any sponsorship from the Hong Kong government. She said that Guadalajara received sponsorship from the authorities and local tourism bureau. When Paris hosted the Gay Games in 2018, the French president, the mayor of Paris, and the local tourism bureau contributed financially.

But there are social and cultural differences, and it is difficult to make comparisons, Lam added.

Whilst same-sex sexual activity was legalised in 1991, Hong Kong has no laws to protect the LGBTQ community from discrimination in employment, the provision of goods and services, or from hate speech. Equal marriage remains illegal, although a 2023 survey showed that 60 per cent of Hongkongers support it. Despite repeated government appeals, courts have granted those who married – or who entered civil partnerships – abroad some recognition in terms of tax, spousal visas and public housing.

Attacks from pro-establishment camp

Since the games were announced, pro-establishment parties and anti-LGBT groups have been on the attack.

Junius Ho, a pro-Beijing lawmaker, claimed during a Legislative Council meeting in June 2021 that Hong Kong did not want the event’s “dirty money”, adding that he was worried it might lead to the legalisation of same-sex marriage.

Pro-establishment lawmaker Priscilla Leung claimed at the same meeting that the GGHK might “divide society” and cast doubt on whether the government would impart the same efforts to promote heterosexual monogamy.

In June 2023, representatives from several groups staged a demonstration outside government headquarters, holding up banners that referred to the Gay Games as “indecent” and “obscene.”

Lawmakers Regina Ip and Adrian Ho from the pro-Beijing New People Party are among the few legislative members who have expressed support for Hong Kong’s hosting of the Gay Games.

The local authorities have not provided any special provisions or welcomed the games. At the time of the city’s successful bid in 2017, then-chief executive Carrie Lam said only that she “noted” the news, as she made reference to the “same sex games.” Statutory bodies such as the tourism board, InvestHK and the Equal Opportunities Commission have, however, given their backing.

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The number of couples without children has overtaken one-child families in Hong Kong, a local non-profit organisation has found, with the average number of children per woman plunging to a record low of 0.9.

The questionnaire, conducted by the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong, surveyed 1,502 women who are married or living with their partner between September and December 2022, as well as their partners.

Among them, women with no children made up 43.2 per cent of respondents, up from 20.6 per cent in 2017, the last time the survey was done. The number of women with one child decreased from 38.3 per cent to 27.4 per cent.

Meanwhile, the average number of children per women was 0.91, down from 1.28 in 2017. The figure was 3.3 in 1972, according to the association.

In April, the United Nations Population Fund reported that Hong Kong had the lowest fertility rate in the world.

The Family Planning Association has conducted this survey every five years since 1967 to monitor family planning trends, it said. The 2022 survey was the 12th in the series.

Ideal number of children

The survey also looked into the ideal number of children that respondents desired. The average number of children that women wanted to have was 1.47, a decrease from 1.59 in 2017.

The figure for surveyed men was similar at 1.45, down from 1.61 in 2017.

Women desiring children, or wanting more children, increased from 15.3 per cent in 2017 to 22 per cent. However, women who desired no children or no more children were still the majority, making up 55.2 per cent of the respondents. About one-fifth of the respondents said they did not know, or were undecided, if they wanted children or desired more children.

Respondents who said they did not want children, or wanted just one child, were also asked why. Around 52 per cent of women and 49 per cent of men said they themselves or their spouse did not like children, emerging as the most common reason. The second-most popular reason was that the responsibility of raising children was too large, with 23.5 per cent of women and 20.9 per cent citing that as a factor.

The association said they hoped to see more services, including pre-pregnancy and fertility related healthcare, in the community to support couples desiring children and to make having children more accessible.

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Over 1,300 non-consensual sexual images have been reported to online platforms and websites with the hopes of getting them removed over the past two years, a Hong Kong NGO that fights sexual violence has said.

They involved 171 victims, NGO RainLily said in a press conference on Tuesday. While 89 per cent of online content was successfully removed after the NGO flagged it to online platforms, challenges remained as content farms, messaging apps like Telegram and forum LIHKG were largely unresponsive to take-down requests.

RainLily, which supports victims of sexual violence, introduced the initiative Take-Down Assistance in April 2021 to help people whose intimate photos were distributed online without their consent to request their removal from different websites. Victims could make reports anonymously.

Victims of non-consensual intimate images included women and men, the former of which accounted for 71.3 per cent of the cases, the NGO said.

Messaging app Telegram has been widely reported in international media as a “hotbed” of non-consensual intimate images, according to RainLily. Jacey Kan, a senior advocacy officer at the group, said images were often shared there along with the victims’ personal information and even fabricated stories about them.

“These channels also have multiple sub-groups, where the same messages are shared, making it more difficult to take them down,” Kan said during the press conference. “Although these platforms have policies and reporting channels, they do not respond to and deal with removal requests effectively. “

Local forum LIHKG was one of the “least responsive social media platforms” to the NGO’s removal requests, Kan said.

The NGO urged operators of content farms as well as Telegram, LIHKG, and social media giant Meta to cooperate with NGOs and victims to remove images when asked.

RainLily also said that the city’s privacy watchdog, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD), should strengthen its role in dealing with non-consensual intimate images.

“Actually, a lot of intimate images show the face of the victims, but the PCPD rarely treat non-consensual intimate images as an invasion of personal data,” Kan said, urging the PCPD to play a “more proactive role.”

In response to questions from HKFP, a Telegram spokesperson said the platform monitored harmful content, including revenge porn, and also accepted user reports to remove content that breached the platform’s terms of service.

“Not all reports receive a response, but every report is processed, ” the spokesperson said via Telegram.

Image-based sexual violence

Since October 2021, Hong Kong has criminalised four offences that fall under image-based sexual violence – voyeurism; unlawful recording or observation of intimate parts; publication of image originating from above offences; and publication or threatened publication of intimate images without consent.

Police told HKFP by email they had received reports of 1,040 cases since the introduction of the four offences related to voyeurism, among which 724 persons had been arrested.

There were difficulties and challenges involved in investigating cases of voyeurism, police said, particularly those facilitated through the use of the internet, where people often used false identities

“This can make it extremely challenging to identify and track down the offenders, as their true identities and locations may be concealed,” the police said, adding that the cooperation from overseas service providers and timely reporting of such images were essential for investigation.

See also: Victims struggle to seek help even after Hong Kong’s new law against voyeurism

In addition to non-consensual intimate images, RainLily also received reports of victims dealing with the other offences. The NGO said that a total of 646 victims of image-based sexual violence sought help over the past two years.

Doris Chong, the executive director of RainLily, said that while victims can report to the police, frontline workers found that people were hesitant to do so as many of them felt scared and anxious.

Some cases it received concerned intimate images of children and adolescents, the NGO said, adding that it had transferred those cases to other service centres as they did not fall under their scope.

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In cosplay, irrespective of gender, height, or body shape, anyone can embody the character they desire. Sometimes, they do not even need to be a specific character, simply dressing up for fun and posing with others for memorable photos.

The inclusive world of cosplay was on display at Ani-Com & Games Hong Kong 2023, an annual four-day event for fans of anime, comics and games (ACG) held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from July 28 until August 1.

“This is my third year participating in the ACG fair, cosplaying as various characters. I used to be shy and struggle with social anxiety, but it brings me great joy when someone approaches me and asks for photos,” Forest, 24, told HKFP.

Like many young people, Forest has been passionate about ACG culture since her teenage years. She explained that she had learned to have courage through anime, saying: “Throughout different stages of life, I’ve encountered numerous challenges, and often, I just wanted to escape. Anime and comics have taught me the significance of confronting those difficulties.”

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Government-funded broadcaster RTHK will suspend a LGBTQ-related radio programme next month after 17 years, the host of the programme has said on its official Facebook page. 

We Are Family was launched in 2006 to promote diversity and integration, according to the broadcaster’s website and was the first show of its kind. It remains the city’s only LGBTQ radio show.

Brian Leung, a host for the programme and an advocate for LGBT rights, said that he was informed by the head of the Chinese programme service in early July that We Are Family would be suspended from August owing to “programme rescheduling”. 

Aired on Saturdays at midnight, the award-winning show covers topics from trans rights, to the culture of drag queens, and the life and stories of the LGBTQ community, with special guests. 

In response to HKFP, an RTHK spokesperson said on Monday that they do not comment on internal matters: “RTHK reviews programming strategies from time to time to ensure providing quality programmes and information for the public in compliance with the public purposes and mission set out in the Charter of RTHK.”

Numerous fans commented on Facebook expressing disappointment over RTHK’s decision: “I was in the first year of secondary when the programme was aired for the first time. Equal rights for the LGBT community had not been widely promoted at that time. But thanks to We Are Family, people from our family started to speak up…” one commenter said.

Veteran broadcaster Leung said that he would not host any programmes in the near future: “[T]here is no need for self-deception.” 

“At a time when Hong Kong saw drastic changes, many things are just a matter of time, and we had mentally prepared ourselves for what may come.”

In an episode broadcast on July 5, Leung said he was invited in 2006 by RTHK to re-join the company to host the new show. “I thought the programme would only last three months. In the end, it has been airing for 17 years. 

‘Propaganda mouthpiece’

Hong Kong has plummeted in international press freedom indices since the onset of the security law. Watchdogs cite the arrest of journalists, raids on newsrooms and the closure of around 10 media outlets including Apple Daily, Stand News and Citizen News. Over 1,000 journalists have lost their jobs, whilst many emigrated. Meanwhile, the city’s government-funded broadcaster RTHK has adopted new editorial guidelines, purged its archives and axed news and satirical shows.

See also: Explainer: Hong Kong’s press freedom under the national security law

In 2022, Chief Executive John Lee has said press freedom was “in the pocket” of Hongkongers but “nobody is above the law.” Lee, whose administration is mulling a “fake news” law, has told the press to “tell a good Hong Kong story.”

In August 2021, RTHK started to partner with China Media Group – the holding group for CCTV and China National Radio – to air more programmes to “nurture a stronger sense of patriotism” among viewers, a move condemned by the city’s journalists association as changing the city’s public broadcaster into “a propaganda mouthpiece”. 

The government proposed last week that programmes about national education, national identity, and the “correct understanding” of the security law be exempt from an impartiality clause requiring “even-handedness” when opposing points of view are presented.

Chinese authorities have targeted the LGBTQ community in recent years, with university societies and pride events discontinued. The Beijing LGBT Center, one of China’s leading organisations offering support for the queer population, announced in May that it would halt its operations.

LGBTQ rights

Whilst same-sex sexual activity was legalised in 1991, Hong Kong has no laws to protect the LGBTQ community from discrimination in employment, the provision of goods and services, or from hate speech. Equal marriage remains illegal, although a 2023 survey showed that 60 per cent of Hongkongers support it. Despite repeated government appeals, courts have granted those who married – or who entered civil partnerships – abroad some recognition in terms of tax, spousal visas and public housing.

As well as opposing progress towards equality in court, the government has also funded groups with homophobic views and those which advocate “gay conversion.”

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Thirteen transgender people on Saturday applied to change the gender marker on their identity cards to their preferred gender identity, in a coordinated effort to urge the Immigration Department to update its terms. It came after a ruling by the city’s top court allowing trans people to do so without having undergone full sex reassignment surgery (SRS).

Speaking outside Immigration Tower in Wan Chai, Christine Chu – member of transgender concern group Quarks – said their group would be joined by another eight people who had previously filed applications to change their gender markers in February and March.

“But months later, those applications are still pending,” Chu, a trans woman, told reporters, adding that the applicants had not received word from the department beyond an acknowledgement.

Chu, who founded the Hong Kong Trans Law Database this year, said the Immigration Department had still not updated its conditions for changing gender markers to reflect February’s ruling.

‘Not medically required’

The department’s website currently states that people who have undergone SRS, psychotherapy and hormonal treatment, and have had a “real-life experience of the chosen gender role for a period of time” are eligible to submit an application with supporting documents to change their gender marker.

A full SRS procedure for trans men includes the removal of the uterus and ovaries, and the construction of a penis or “some form of a penis.” A sex change from male to female would include the “removal of the penis and testes”, and the “construction of a vagina,” February’s judgement read.

The court ruled that the procedure was “at the invasive end of the treatment spectrum for gender dysphoria” and “not medically required by many transgender persons.”

“We urge the Immigration Department and its Registration of Persons Office to face trans folks’ demands,” Chu said on Saturday, a day after Quarks called on trans people who had not undergone SRS to submit applications to change their gender markers.

“The Registration of Persons Office has been given ample time to update its policies. For it to continue to uphold a policy ruled as unconstitutional to this day, for it to continue to adhere to that policy for changing one’s gender marker, would mean that the Immigration Department is violating constitutional rights,” Chu said.

Quarks vice-chairperson Zephyrus Tsang, a trans man, said the Department’s understanding of “sex-reassignment surgery” generally only referred to the aforementioned genital surgeries, known colloquially as “bottom surgery.” He added that gender-affirming care could refer more broadly to other forms of treatment, such as “top” surgeries including mastectomy.

Five months later

The move by Quarks came five months after Hong Kong’s top court in February overturned a government policy that barred trans people from changing the gender marker on their identity cards if they had not undergone full sex reassignment surgery. Trans activist Henry Tse, one of the appellants, said he had “successfully defended [his] dignity and male identity.”

Tse, 31, together with two other trans men identified as “Q” and “R,” lost their first legal challenge in 2018. Tse and Q lodged an appeal to the Court of Appeal, which upheld the government’s policy in a ruling handed down last January.

The top court sided with the appellants this February, ruling that the policy violated people’s constitutional rights to privacy under the Hong Kong Bill of Rights ordinance.

The “external incongruence” between their physical appearance and the gender displayed on their identity card could elicit doubt and questions that involved a “violation of dignity and invasion of privacy complained of in this appeal,” the judgement read.

“Your ID card is something that you use on a daily basis, whether to open a bank account or to identify yourself when you’re subjected to a stop-and-search by police,” Chu said, reiterating an argument made by Tse in court earlier this year.

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The absence of same-sex marriage in Hong Kong sends a message that it is “less worthy” of recognition than heterosexual marriage, the city’s top court has heard during a democrat’s appeal for recognition of overseas same-sex unions.

Jimmy Sham, who turned 36 on Wednesday and was the ex-convenor of disbanded protest group the Civil Human Rights Front, appeared at the Court of Final Appeal in front of Chief Justice Andrew Cheung, Permanent Judges Roberto Ribeiro, Joseph Fok, Johnson Lam, and Non-Permanent Judge Patrick Keane.

Sham, who was wearing a black T-shirt in court on Wednesday, is among the 47 democrats charged under the Beijing-imposed national security law over an unofficial primary election. He has been detained since March 2021, and is awaiting sentencing, which will take place after the trial against his co-defendants who pleaded not guilty.

Sham married his partner in New York in 2013 and launched his bid for Hong Kong to recognise same-sex marriages performed overseas in 2018, arguing that it was unconstitutional for Hong Kong to not recognise overseas same-sex marriages.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the democrat’s case last August, before Sham was granted permission to take the case to the top court in November.

The Court of Final Appeal was asked to rule on three questions: whether the exclusion of same-sex couples from the institution of marriage was a violation of the right to equality under the Hong Kong Bill of Rights and Basic Law, and whether it was a violation of the right to privacy when same-sex couples were not allowed to marry in Hong Kong and there were no alternative legal recognition such as civil partnerships.

The court was also asked to determine whether it was a violation of the right to equality that foreign same-sex marriages were not recognised in the city.

Protection of ‘traditional marriages’

King’s Counsel Karon Monaghan, representing Sham, refuted the government’s argument that allowing same-sex marriage would harm the concept of marriage, which according to the Basic Law is heterosexual.

There was no conflict between the aim of protecting “traditional marriage” and allowing homosexual marriage, Monaghan said, as same-sex couples would not enter heterosexual marriages.

It would be “extremely unlikely and fanciful” that opposite-sex couples would be discouraged from getting married because same-sex marriages were allowed, said Monaghan.

The Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, also did not restrict marriage to opposite-sex couples, the king’s counsel added.

Senior Counsel Stewart Wong, representing the secretary for justice, said that while Sham was also asking for an alternative recognition of same-sex partnerships, he was essentially asking, in substance, for the same rights enjoyed by people in heterosexual marriages.

Wong added that the concept of marriage “being embedded and enshrined” in the Basic Law was heterosexual.

“And then if you say that [it is] a constitutional right to have same-sex marriage either in substance and or in name… then the value enshrined in the Basic Law, which it aimed to protect, will be gone,” said Wong.

‘Core rights’

Same-sex couples were also entitled to “core rights” in their private life, including in areas concerning succession, parenting, and divorce, Monaghan argued. The lack of homosexual partnership recognition would harm same-sex couples’ right to equality, the king’s counsel added.

Monaghan was then asked to draft up a list of core rights concerned for the court, after Keane said that if the rights were not defined by her team, the king’s counsel would be asking the court to perform a legislative function by defining what those rights were.

Wong, in response to Monaghan’s argument, said that the king’s counsel could not “introduce such a concept as uncertain as subjective as core rights as a constitutional right.”

The senior counsel added that the court would not be able to draw a line to distinguish what core rights were, and that the appellant’s argument was not raised in previous appeals.

The government’s positive obligation

The secretary for justice’s representative also argued that the government did not have a “positive obligation” to recognise or provide an alternative mechanism to same-sex marriage.

Wong cited Article 14 of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights, and said that the article only stated that citizens were entitled to the protection against interference or attacks against their right to privacy, but it did not mean the government had to actively set up a legal framework to recognise homosexual marriages.

The senior counsel also relied on the lex specialis principle, which means that a provision of a more specific nature will prevail over one that is more general.

As Article 37 of the Basic Law concerning the right to marriage preferred heterosexual marriage, the court should follow that definition when interpreting other more general provisions of the mini-constitution and the Hong Kong Bill of Rights.

The hearing will continue on Thursday, where the court is expected to hear arguments concerning the proposed list of core rights.

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Local conservative groups have urged Hong Kong authorities to oppose the upcoming Gay Games, calling the advocacy of LGBTQ rights a “threat” to traditional values and saying the event scheduled for November could lead to a “repeat” of the protests and unrest of 2019.

Representatives from several groups staged a demonstration outside the government headquarters on Wednesday, holding up banners that referred to the Gay Games as “indecent” and “obscene.”

“This event has been infiltrated with [ideas] about sexual liberation, bisexuality and homosexuality,” said Grace Kwong from pro-Beijing group Politihk Social Strategic. “[Such ideas] have even entered schools, poisoning our young people.”

“We parents do not want to see this and feel so helpless, because in 2019… we were already very scared,” Kwong said. “Could there be black riots that will happen [again]?”

The city saw widespread protests and unrest that year as demonstrators took to the streets to oppose a controversial extradition bill.

Kwong added that she was “afraid” the multi-sport event would trigger a “colour revolution,” as protesters urged the government to “show their opposition to the Gay Games” and “cease any venue support from government departments or groups.”

Representatives of about a dozen top officials, including of Chief Executive John Lee and Secretary for Security Chris Tang, stopped by the protest to receive petition letters from the groups.

Joyce Chiu, from a group called “Family Build in Love,” said the Gay Games had an agenda to promote “sexual liberation.”

“[The LGBTQ community] are not the ones being marginalised,” Chiu said. “We are.”

The games, which were postponed for a year due to Covid-19, will be co-hosted by Hong Kong along with Guadalajara in Mexico. It will mark the first time the global sporting event will be held in Asia since it was founded in 1982.

Kwong added that Jimmy Sham, an openly gay LGBTQ and pro-democracy activist, and former lawmakers were “closely linked” with people who advocated for LGBTQ rights. Sham, as well as many ex-lawmakers, are currently detained under the national security law.

At least eight lawmakers, including Starry Lee, Priscilla Leung, Holden Chow, Peter Koon and Tik Chi-yuen, also attended the Wednesday protest to receive the petition letters, InMedia reported.

“I really understand that there are many parents and groups in Hong Kong who are very concerned about the coming Gay Games,” Leung said.

She added that young children in Western countries were being taught things that challenged “traditional values,” and that Hong Kong “must not go down this bad path.”

Chow said he believed that there were “many citizens in Hong Kong who were respectful of traditional family values and ‘one-man, one woman’ matrimonies,” and that lawmakers would follow up on the matter in the Legislative Council.

First held in San Francisco in 1982, the Gay Games is a inclusive sporting event seeking to bring together athletes regardless of gender, age, ability, or physical challenge.

The nine-day-long Gay Games Hong Kong will include a range of sporting events, as well as art and cultural programmes such as concerts featuring local and international artists, exhibitions, and a festival village, according to its website. In May, organisers told HKFP that sign ups were more than 90 per cent below target.

‘Not a political event’

In response to HKFP, the Gay Games Hong Kong organisers said they “strongly disagreed” with the claims made at the protest, and that the games were “not a political event.”

“LGBTQ+ parents and their children deserve respect, recognition, and support from society. They are part of the fabric of Hong Kong’s diverse and multicultural society,” they said.

“The LGBTQ+ movement is not a threat to family values, but rather a reaffirmation of them,” the organisers added. “Numerous studies have shown that LGBTQ+ parents and their children are as well-adjusted as parents and children in the general population. They do not differ in well-being or in multiple developmental outcomes from other families.”

Among the claims made at the demonstration were that “research proved” children brought up by same-sex parents were more likely to develop emotional disorders.

Lawmaker Regina Ip, one of the few LegCo members who has expressed support for Hong Kong’s hosting of the Gay Games, said the “accusation” that the Gay Games organisers were associated with the “colour revolution” and could incite street protests was a “very serious allegation which should not be made in such a cavalier manner.”

“[S]uch allegations… [could] even stir up hatred against a particular class of individuals,” Ip told HKFP.

“Lawmakers should not provide more ammunition to foreign media for attacks on legitimate individual rights and freedoms,” she added.

In a statement to reporters at the petition, the groups said that they were preparing a “series of activities” including talks, collecting signatures and street booths to oppose Hong Kong’s hosting of the Gay Games.

Earlier this month, organisers of the Gay Games Hong Kong rejected what they called “slurs” after human rights activists called for the cancellation of the event.

In April, lawmaker Junius Ho shared a petition to protest the November event. Ho said two years ago that the financial benefit that the city would reap from hosting the Gay Games was “dirty money,” a comment which attracted ire from activist groups.

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The organiser of the upcoming Gay Games in Hong Kong has rejected calls to scrap the event, after five human rights activists urged that the games be cancelled.

Gay Games Hong Kong said it was “dismayed and disappointed that certain people outside Hong Kong are actively working to undermine and sabotage the successful staging of the Games later this year.”

The organiser’s comments on Monday came after five activists including American lawyer Samuel Bickett – who was jailed in 2021 for assaulting a police officer during the 2019 extradition bill protests and unrest – called for cancellation.

The five activists said in an Out Sports op-ed published last Wednesday that the organiser “betrayed the values and principles of the Gay Games, which purport to celebrate inclusion and promote human rights.”

“Instead, they have aligned themselves with pro-authoritarian figures responsible for widespread persecution against the people of Hong Kong,” the op-ed read.

The organisers not only ignored the government’s response to the 2019 extradition bill protests, “but openly embraced the illegitimate regime tasked with crushing Hong Kong,” the activists said.

They also criticised the organisers for inviting pro-Beijing lawmaker Regina Ip to a gala last year, and for “misleading” potential participants about their safety if they take part.

“With respect to the Games, which undoubtedly will be seen as a political event by authorities, the National Security Law’s vagueness means that Beijing could decide to either ignore the event entirely, or order arrests of participants for sedition or subversion – and there is simply no way to know which direction it will choose until the event itself,” the activists said.

The Beijing-imposed national security law, enacted in June 2020, criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts, which were broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure.

The move gave police sweeping new powers, alarming democrats, civil society groups and trade partners, as such laws have been used broadly to silence and punish dissidents in China. However, the authorities say it has restored stability and peace to the city.

Games reject ‘slurs’

In response, Gay Games Hong Kong said it was “deeply saddened by unfounded slurs made about the integrity of the [Gay Games Hong Kong] Team.”

“[Gay Games Hong Kong] is not a political organisation,” it said, adding that volunteers represented “a rainbow of different genders, sexual orientation, ages, social backgrounds, nationalities and political views.”

“We are united by one goal only: to deliver a great event for the Federation of Gay Games, for Hong Kong, and for participants and supporters travelling to Hong Kong from around the world. That is our mission. That is what drives us,” the statement read.

It asked participants of the event “to respect and observe local laws and customs during their stay in Hong Kong.”

“Participants in the Games are guests to Hong Kong and we encourage them to show the same respect to local laws and customs as they would with visiting any other city or region.”

Gay Games Hong Kong is scheduled to be held in November after the event was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the organisers said in May that sign-ups for the event were more than 90 per cent below target.

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A crisis centre has again urged the government to lower the age threshold for suspected child abuse victims whose cases would be subject to a new, mandatory reporting mechanism for professionals. It said that knowledge of the requirements may lead to young victims feeling discouraged from speaking up.

Under a proposed bill, practitioners in the social welfare, education and healthcare sectors risk three months’ imprisonment and a fine of HK$50,000 if they fail to report suspected cases of child abuse “as soon as possible.”

The proposed legislation – set to arrive at the legislature on June 15 – defines “children” as those aged under 18. However, last November, crisis centre RainLily proposed adjusting the age threshold to define “child” as someone aged under 14, and a “young person” as someone between the ages of 14 and 16.

RainLily said in a Thursday press release that victims may be less willing to disclose details of any abuse they faced under a mandatory reporting system.

“A mandatory reporting system would further reduce the victim’s willingness to disclose details and cooperate with the investigation. Especially since sexual abuse is different from physical violence in that it does not necessarily cause obvious wounds, it is not easy to identify cases from scars or bruises,” the statement read.

According to the RainLily press release, a child sexual abuse survivor identified as “Bella” recounted her experience seeking help from social workers when she was 16, saying she was not willing to disclose details of the abuse unless they vowed not to report the case or tell her parents: “I will wait until I’m 18, when I’m old enough to move out, to say anything.”

The crisis centre added that – for older children – professionals ought to have flexibility in determining whether the case should be reported, depending on whether the young person wishes to do so.

Unifying existing legislation

The NGO also said the government should refer to the existing offence of “Causing or Allowing the Death or Serious Harm of a Child or Vulnerable Adult” introduced by the Law Reform Commission in 2021, the scope of which covers those under 16 years of age.

Citing the Commission’s report, RainLily said adjusting the age threshold would bring the reporting requirements in line with existing law, while giving those over 16 more autonomy over how they want to handle abuse cases.

“The [Commission’s] conclusion followed a public consultation and a great deal of thought from legal professionals. If the mandatory reporting mechanism relies on professionals to identify child abuse cases, the age thresholds should be aligned [with existing legislation],” the statement reads.

The Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse Bill was gazetted last Friday ahead of the legislative readings. It states that cases must be reported “as soon as practicable if there is a reasonable ground to suspect that a child has been suffering or is at real risk of suffering serious harm,” a Labour and Welfare Bureau statement issued last month reads.

Authorities will provide training for professionals to assist them in identifying cases as well as to help reduce over-reporting.

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Organisers of the upcoming Gay Games in Hong Kong have axed three sports from the international sport and cultural event due to a low number of sign-ups. They also expressed disappointment over the Hong Kong Football Club’s decision to withdraw its venue for the football finals.

There will not be competitions in track and field, field hockey and Rugby 7s after registrations were halted, organisers told HKFP on Friday. The multisport event for the LGBTQ community and its allies is set to be held from November 3 to 11.

The decision came after the organising team in Hong Kong said they had held recent “in-depth discussions” with the Federation of Gay Games (FGG) concerning the preparation progress of the tournament. They took into account the number of registrations to date, the trend of registrations, the likelihood of an uptick in registrations and the cost of staging the event before deciding to scrap the three sports, a spokesperson said.

“These are hard but necessary discussions that need to be had to ensure that the Games can go ahead and that we are accountable for the funding we have raised to stage the Games. The FGG is fully supportive of this approach,” the organisers said.

Those who had signed up to the cancelled events would receive a full refund if they decided not to come to the city. Organisers said they were still hoping to include exhibition games for field hockey and Rugby 7s, which would involve a stand-alone competition organised locally to support the Gay Games.

The organising team of Gay Games Hong Kong also confirmed with HKFP on Friday that the Hong Kong Football Club informed them on Wednesday that it would no longer provide a venue for the football finals.

“We are of course disappointed that we are unable to use the Hong Kong Football Club venue,” a spokesman said, adding the football tournaments, include the final matches, would be held at the Jockey Club HKFA Training Centre in Tseung Kwan O.

HKFP has reached out to the Hong Kong Football Club for comment.

‘Experience session’

According to the event website, there are 18 sports remaining which are open for registration for anyone aged 18 or above regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity. They included badminton, dodgeball, fencing, swimming, trail running and others.

Sailing is also listed as one of the sports to be featured at the Games in November, but the organisers told HKFP that it would be an experience session rather than a competition and therefore would not take any public registrations.

Last month, the organisers said that sign-ups were more than 90 per cent below target. Hong Kong ‘s Covid-19 rules had previously hampered publicity efforts, they said.

In February 2022, Hong Kong Gay Games founder and leader Dennis Philipse announced he was stepping down, citing “continuing uncertainty” over the city’s international travel regulations during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hong Kong was initially meant to be the sole host of the Games, which were postponed for a year due to the pandemic. The organisers announced last year that Hong Kong and Guadalajara would co-host the event to allow more participants to take part should Hong Kong’s Covid-19 restrictions remain.

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Sixty per cent of Hong Kong people now agree with same-sex marriage, according to a joint study published by three universities on Wednesday, the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT). Same-sex marriage remains illegal in Hong Kong.

The new report was jointly issued by the Centre for Comparative and Public Law at the Faculty of Law of HKU; the Sexualities Research Programme at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) ; and the Human Rights Law Program at the University of North Carolina School of Law. 

The telephone survey has been conducted in 2013, 2017, and 2023. In this year’s poll, the Centre for Communication and Public Opinion Survey (CCPOS) at CUHK questioned 1,551 Hong Kong residents aged 18 and over between January and February, 2023.

“It [is] the longest running research project to track public opinion concerning same-sex marriage using representative samples of Hong Kong residents,” the report said.

The report said that, by 2023, 60 per cent of residents surveyed agreed with same-sex marriage; only 17 per cent said they did not support it, whilst 23 per cent were neutral. Meanwhile, in 2013 and 2017, only 38 per cent and 50.4 per cent of people expressed agreement with same-sex marriage respectively.

Equal rights

The survey also asked about same-sex couples’ rights in connection to issues including hospital visitation rights, housing discrimination, fatal accidents, and property inheritance.

In 2023, 85 per cent of Hong Kong people surveyed said that same-sex couples should have some, or all of the rights, enjoyed by different-sex couples, up from 73 per cent in 2013 and 78 per cent in 2017.

Meanwhile, 71 per cent of respondents in 2023 said that Hong Kong should have a law to protect against sexual orientation discrimination, compared with 58 per cent in 2013 and 69 per cent in 2017.

“Over the past ten years, the share of Hong Kong people who favour protecting gay and lesbian rights has grown markedly,” the report said.

IDAHOT is observed annually on May 17 to draw attention to violence and discrimination experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people.

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Taiwan’s parliament passed an amendment on Tuesday allowing gay couples to jointly adopt children, a move hailed by activists as “another big step forward” for marriage equality.

Taiwan is at the vanguard of Asia’s burgeoning LGBTQ rights movement, becoming the first place in the region to legalise marriage equality in 2019.

But same-sex couples still faced restrictions, such as being unable to jointly adopt children. While individuals in Taiwan were allowed to adopt regardless of sexual orientation, those in same-sex marriages could not both be legal parents unless the child was one partner’s biological offspring.

On Tuesday — the eve of the fourth anniversary of Taiwan’s marriage equality law — parliament passed the amendment removing those restrictions, with lawmaker Fan Yun hailing the cross-party support for the bill.

The amendment “not only ensures the protection of children’s rights but also meets their best interest,” said Fan, who was draped in a rainbow flag.

“In the future, spouses and parents, regardless of gender and sexual orientation, can have full legal protection.”

The amendment comes after a family court in southern Kaohsiung City last year ruled in favour of a married gay man seeking to share parenthood of his husband’s adoptive child — the first verdict of its kind.

“After four years of hard work, today the parliament finally passed the (bill for) adoption without blood relationship by same-sex couples,” the advocacy group Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights said in a statement.

The group also hailed Taiwan’s recent recognition of transnational same-sex marriage — a move made in January by then-premier Su Tseng-chang to lift restrictions for international couples.

Previously foreigners were not allowed to wed their Taiwanese partners if they came from territories banning same-sex marriage — which is much of Asia.

But one of Su’s last acts in office was to recognise such unions — including for couples from Hong Kong and Macau, though not mainland China, which is governed under a different set of regulations in Taiwan.

“Following the full recognition of transnational same-sex marriage in January, Taiwan has taken another big step towards marriage equality,” the alliance said of the adoption amendment.

Taiwan is home to a thriving LGBTQ community — a record 200,000 people attended a pride march in Taipei in 2019 to celebrate the legalisation of same-sex marriage.

That law came about after Taiwan’s top court ruled that denying same-sex couples the right to marry was discriminatory and unconstitutional.

Over the next two years, at least 7,000 same-sex couples tied the knot according to 2021 data from the Interior Ministry.

The alliance said Tuesday it would continue to push for more rights for same-sex couples, including recognition of Taiwanese-Chinese marriages.

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The Beijing LGBT Center, one of China’s leading organisations offering support for the queer population, has announced the end of its operations.

The group, founded in 2008, provided the local gay, lesbian and transgender community with mental health therapy, medical resources and social support.

“We regret to inform you that due to unpreventable circumstances, the Beijing LGBT Center ceases operations today,” the group said in a statement Monday, without giving reasons.

The organisation also conducted research and developed networks of experts in an effort to enhance awareness of the challenges faced by gay people.

Chinese authorities decriminalised homosexuality in 1997, although same-sex marriage is not legal and social stigma is widespread.

Despite a period of relaxation in the 2000s and 2010s, recent years have seen a crackdown on the community, with university societies and pride events discontinued.

Jinghua Qian, a freelance journalist and expert on queer issues in China, lamented the closure on Tuesday, describing it as “terribly sad”.

“Beijing LGBT+ Center is absolutely pivotal to queer advocacy and social welfare in China and it was basically the last major, long-running organisation standing after waves of crackdowns smashed everything else,” Qian wrote on Twitter.

Shanghai Pride — once the country’s largest annual celebration of gay rights — announced in 2020 it would not be held that year and has not taken place since, though many events in China were paused due to Covid.

Film and television content depicting gay romance is not allowed, and early last year gay dating app Grindr was taken off digital shelves.

Reaction to the centre’s closure indicated it had left a lasting impact on the LGBT community.

“There will be people who have changed because you were there,” one person wrote on online platform Weibo. “Thanks for passing through this era. I hope there will be a chance to meet again.”

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Sign-ups for the upcoming Gay Games in Hong Kong are currently more than 90 per cent below target, organisers have said, adding that the city’s Covid-19 rules had previously hampered publicity efforts.

However, a source familiar with the matter told HKFP that they believed leadership changes may also be impacting organisation efforts.

“The pandemic related travel restrictions for Hong Kong made it very difficult for us to plan our promotional activities, so we lost valuable time last year where we could not promote aggressively,” the organisers told HKFP.

They said they had achieved “close to 10 per cent” of their registration target for individual sign-ups, with tennis and dragon boat racing events seeing the most interest.

Gay Games participants can sign up as individuals or corporates. The organisation did not say how many corporate sign-ups they had seen. Registration to take part opened last October, according to the Gay Games Facebook page.

The games, which were postponed for a year due to Covid-19, will be co-hosted by Hong Kong and the Mexican city of Guadalajara from November 3 to 11 this year.

Hong Kong was initially meant to be the sole host of the event. However, the organisers announced last year that Hong Kong and Guadalajara would co-host the event to allow more participants to take part should Hong Kong’s Covid-19 restrictions remain.

The city maintained some of the world’s strictest Covid-19 rules for almost three years, with travellers having to quarantine in a hotel for up to three weeks when restrictions were at their most stringent.

The organisers said they did not have figures for the number of people who had signed up for the event in Guadalajara.

The nine-day-long Gay Games will include a range of sporting events, as well as art and cultural programmes such as concerts featuring local and international artists, exhibitions, and a festival village, according to its website.

“We began marketing registration in February after the Covid restrictions for Hong Kong were lifted, so we will host promotional activities in Hong Kong and globally over the next few months,” organisers said.

HKFP has reached out to the Gay Games for comment on what publicity efforts have already been undertaken, and what to expect in the lead up to the event.

According to the Gay Games’ Facebook page, organisers will hold a promotional booth at a fitness event at AsiaWorld-Expo this weekend.

First held in San Francisco in 1982, the Gay Games is a inclusive sporting event seeking to bring together athletes regardless of gender, age, ability, or physical challenge.

Prior to this year’s games, the event has been held in nine cities including New York City, Amsterdam and Paris. People who do not identify as part of the LGBTQ community are also welcome to join.

A source familiar with the matter said they believed that Covid-19 rules were not the only reason the event was struggling to attract participants. The person said there had been leadership changes, and that some in the new leadership team were not familiar with running a sporting event.

“They’ve never been to the Gay Games before, or equivalent events,” they said.

The organisers said they were “hopeful that the combined totals of Hong Kong and Guadalajara will exceed previous Gay Games,” as people are hungry to travel again” and that they expected to see registration numbers steadily increase.

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Despite being a churchgoer, Alvin Cheung never prays. Hymns send a chill down his spine, and the last time he touched a Bible was over 10 years ago.

The 38-year-old is a regular at his LGBTQ-friendly church, but avoids weekly worship meetings as he finds them triggering, a reminder of the darkest period in his life.

In 2005, as a university student, he was desperate to change his sexual orientation and attended counselling sessions run by a Christian organisation that said he could be “straightened.”

Over the course of a year, he attended one-to-one and small-group counselling sessions at the organisation, listening to hymns and reciting Bible verses. Each session was focused on a different topic, such as how to build “healthy” same-sex friendships and deal with “relapses.”

“They amplified the message that I had internalised growing up: that same-sex attraction was not normal, that it was unnatural, that it was not right,” he said, adding that they were “brainwashing” him.

The organisation, New Creation Association, is among a number of Christian groups receiving funding from a government scheme to promote the rights of sexual minorities. The groups have been said to encourage sexual orientation change efforts, a practice globally condemned as dangerous and traumatic.

‘Holistic development’

In 2003, the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau (CMAB) began administering an annual Equal Opportunities (Sexual Orientation) Funding Scheme to support projects – from workshops to counselling programmes to drama performances – run by community organisations.

However, since the scheme's early years, groups said to advocate sexual orientation change efforts have been among those to receive funding.

According to information on the CMAB website, around HK$694,000 has been distributed to such groups since 2017 - about 10 per cent of total funds. Figures for years prior to 2017 were not available on the website, and the bureau said it had no further information.

As well as the New Creation Association, the scheme's beneficiaries include the Post Gay Alliance and the Hong Kong Psychosexual Education Association. The groups, which share a founder and describe themselves as "sister" organisations, avoid language explicitly suggesting sexual orientation change efforts on their websites, but said they supported those perceiving their homosexuality to be in conflict with their Christian beliefs.

Globally, efforts to change sexual orientation, commonly referred to as conversion therapy, have been accepted to cause long-lasting psychological damage and are viewed as inherently discriminatory. In 2020, the United Nations called for an international ban on the practice.

Last April, lawmaker Tik Chi-yuen asked government officials in the Legislative Council whether they were aware of "concern relayed by some community organisations" that certain groups which received funding had made "discriminatory remarks" against the LGBTQ+ community, therefore "contravening the original intention of the funding scheme."

In response to HKFP, Tik said some groups had "reflected" these views to him, and that he hoped the government would address them. "Any form of discrimination cannot be tolerated," he said.

He added, however, that he had not followed up with the government since.

HKFP has reached out to the aforementioned groups, all of which declined interviews and did not respond to emailed questions.

A New Creation Association spokesperson said on a phone call that the group “did not know what conversion therapy was,” and that it offered counselling for "holistic development."

The CMAB did not respond to a question about why it continued to fund groups offering such controversial practices.

'I was torturing myself'

For Cheung, who describes himself as a conversion therapy survivor, a year undergoing counselling with New Creation Association resulted in deep-seated trauma that continues to affect him almost two decades later.

Raised by religious parents and having attended a Christian school, Cheung told HKFP that he sought out New Creation Association in 2005. He recalled seeing a pamphlet printed by the organisation that claimed a 70 per cent “success rate” among people leaving behind a homosexual lifestyle.

“When I called their hotline, the woman who answered told me that her husband was a ‘success case,’” Cheung, a social worker, said. “They said they could help me become straight.”

"They didn't force me to finish their counselling, but it was not easy to leave when these [anti-gay] messages become so ingrained, and when you are so determined to change."

Instructed to suppress all sexual desires while believing he could be “cured” if he "worked hard enough" and trusted in his faith, Cheung - then a university student - fell into deep depression and was unable to concentrate on schoolwork, he said, adding that he also felt suicidal.

"All my life I have worked hard, whether at school or practicing music," Cheung, who played the clarinet at a professional level, said. "Who knew that in this case, hard work could almost kill you."

The association also advised participants to read books advocating sexual orientation change efforts, he said, a suggestion he took on diligently. One book encouraged readers to analyse the reasons for experiencing same-sex attraction, which Cheung said brought on waves of self-hate and disparaging thoughts.

In a diary entry from the time, Cheung wrote that his skin was too pale, his shoulders too narrow, and that he easily became jealous, was fearful of abandonment, and lacked direction in life.

"I was torturing myself, but I rationalised it by thinking that Christians must go through pain," Cheung said. "After all, Jesus sacrificed himself for us."

Another former participant of New Creation Association’s counselling sessions, Fung Chow, said his counsellor would describe same-sex attraction as the work of the devil.

Unlike Cheung, Chow said he was not emotionally traumatised by his experience. The 31-year-old took part in the sessions in 2017 and said he respected his younger self's decision to seek out the group.

“But still, they gave me false hope,” Chow said. "I am angry at them but also at my own ignorance, which was a product of the church and society's teachings."

Now a regular at Blessed Ministry Community Church, a church that welcomes the LGBTQ community, Chow said he no longer believed that Christianity defined same-sex attraction as a sin. "It's people's ideology. It's unrelated to religion," he added.

'They don't stand for equality'

In the face of criticism, the groups and their supporters have maintained that they do not discriminate against LGBTQ individuals or force them to change their sexual orientation.

The founder of New Creation Association, Post Gay Alliance and the Hong Kong Psychosexual Education Association, Hong Kwai-wah, has previously told Christian media outlets that people have the right to pursue change if they are unhappy with their same-sex attraction. 

A receptionist at Hong's psychiatry clinic told HKFP that he was not available for an interview.

Diana Kwok, an associate professor at the Education University of Hong Kong’s Department of Special Education and Counselling, said it was concerning that the government would fund efforts that research had shown causes guilt, self-stigma and internalised homophobia.

“The assumption of sexual orientation change efforts is wrong. The assumption is that homosexuality needs to be cured. It does not need to be cured,” Kwok told HKFP.

Kwan Kai-man, a religion professor at the Baptist University of Hong Kong and a former consultant for New Creation Association, however, said he did not think such efforts were harmful.

“Some people feel unsatisfied [experiencing same-sex attraction] and they think homosexuality is not the solution for them, so they seek help,” Kwan said.

He added that there was “no demonstrated case” in Hong Kong of people developing trauma as a result. He said he also doubted the credibility of studies and media reports suggesting otherwise, calling the topic a “very political issue.”

Cheung, who founded a group that promotes affirmative therapy - a practice that advocates for self-acceptance of gender identity and does not try to "repair" it - said he had been in touch with other “survivors” of New Creation Association’s counselling programmes. He said the organisation’s approach appeared to have softened over the years.

One day in 2016, he received a call out of the blue from his former counsellor, who apologised, saying he had "lacked experience" back then and was now accepting of people choosing to embrace their sexual orientation.

Kit, a lesbian who asked to use a nickname, got to know the group in a different capacity to Cheung and Chow. Raised in a Catholic family, the 40-year-old spent her university years going from one counsellor to another to try to change her sexuality. She believed she succeeded - she said she no longer wanted to date and identified as "post gay," a term used by many Christian groups to refer to people who no longer experienced or acted on same-sex attraction.

In 2016, she began volunteering at New Creation Association, working with parents struggling to accept that their children were gay. Then, she met a woman who she began seeing. They are still dating today.

"When I told people at the group [that I was seeing a girl], I felt the feedback they gave me was bad. The tone was that I've sinned," Kit said.

"Around that time, I stopped going to New Creation Association," she continued. "I realised our views on LGBT issues, as Christians, were too different."

Kit said her mental health was "in a good place" and despite being surrounded by messages that she has since realised she did not agree with, she was emotionally unscathed. But she did not think New Creation Association and its related groups stood for her or the LGBTQ community.

Such groups have expressed their opposition to the legalisation of same-sex marriage, calling them a threat to traditional family values.

"Equality is about, 'I'm gay, and I have all the rights that others do'," Kit said. "I don't understand why these groups are receiving government funding that's meant to promote equality."

If you are experiencing negative feelings, please call: The Samaritans 2896 0000 (24-hour, multilingual), Suicide Prevention Centre 2382 0000 or the Social Welfare Department 2343 2255. The Hong Kong Society of Counselling and Psychology provides a WhatsApp hotline in English and Chinese: 6218 1084.

See also: HKFP’s comprehensive guide to mental health services in Hong Kong

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Professional women’s tennis tournaments will resume in China in September after a 16-month boycott over concerns for the safety of Chinese player Peng Shuai, the WTA announced on Thursday.

The former doubles world number one has not been seen outside China since first making, and then withdrawing, accusations of sexual assault against a high-ranking official.

“In 2021, when Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai bravely came forward, the WTA took a stance and suspended its operation of events in China out of concern for her safety and the safety of our players and staff,” it said.

But the WTA, the body that runs women’s professional tennis, admitted its “principled stand… a powerful message to the world” had not been able “to bring about change”.

“After 16 months of suspended tennis competition in China and sustained efforts at achieving our original requests, the situation has shown no sign of changing,” the WTA said.

“We have concluded we will never fully secure those goals, and it will be our players and tournaments who ultimately will be paying an extraordinary price for their sacrifices.

“For these reasons, the WTA is lifting its suspension of the operation of tournaments in the People’s Republic of China and will resume tournaments in China this September.”

The WTA added: “We have not been able to achieve everything we set out for, but we have been in touch with people close to Peng and are assured she is living safely with her family in Beijing.

“We also have received assurances that WTA players and staff operating in China will be safe and protected while in the country. The WTA takes this commitment seriously and will hold all parties responsible.”

‘Resolution required’

The WTA said in January that it had called for a “formal investigation into the allegations by the appropriate authorities and an opportunity for the WTA to meet with Peng – privately – to discuss her situation”.

“While we have always indicated we are hopeful we will be in a position to again operate WTA events in the region, we will not compromise our founding principles in order to do so,” it said at the time.

“A return to the region will require a resolution to the Peng Shuai situation in which Peng took a bold step in publicly coming forth with the accusation that she was sexually assaulted by a senior Chinese government leader.”

Peng, a former world doubles number one, had alleged in a social media post that a former Chinese vice-premier had forced her into sex during a relationship of several years, but has since twice denied she accused anyone of sexual assault and described the situation as a “huge misunderstanding”.

China has represented a large share of the WTA’s revenue in the past decade and the organisation has suffered deep financial losses since Chinese tournaments were initially cancelled due to Covid-19 in 2020.

The WTA’s decision to return means the closing stages of the women’s tennis season will again be focused on China.

The season-ending WTA Finals will resume its 10-year deal with the city of Shenzhen.

French player Caroline Garcia, the world number five, said she understood why the WTA was making a “very important” return to China.

“The ATP and the ITF (International Tennis Federation) were already going back, and women’s tennis is following,” she told the BBC.

“In the past we have had some huge tournaments over there and I think it is an important swing for us in our calendar and I’m looking forward to it.”

Sport in China has been deeply disrupted by the Covid pandemic.

The ATP men’s tennis circuit suspended its tournaments there but, with the country now emerging from stringent anti-Covid measures, four men’s tournaments are scheduled to be held in China this year, in Chengdu, Zhuhai, Beijing and Shanghai from September to October.

The Winter Olympics went ahead in Beijing in 2022 but were held in an extraordinary ‘closed loop’ with competitors, coaches, staff and members of the media cut off from the Chinese population.

Peng briefly appeared as a spectator at those Olympics.

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As Hong Kong prepares to make history as the first place in Asia to host the Gay Games, an international sporting and cultural event, one of its organisers has expressed confidence that censorship will not be an issue in the city. The games, which were postponed for a year due to Covid-19, will be co-hosted by Hong Kong and Guadalajara in Mexico from November 3 to 9 this year.

This marks the first time that the Gay Games, which have been going for 40 years, will be held in both Asia and Latin America.

Despite outbursts by various lawmakers during 2021, Lisa Lam, co-chair and general counsel of the Gay Games Hong Kong, said she was unconcerned about potential protests against the games. “[O]f course there will be different opinions, but I hope conversation and communication can be stimulated because of this event,” Lam said while speaking on a radio show on Friday morning.

Potential censorship

Speaking during a press conference about the games on Tuesday, Lam said that the team was excited to host the game, despite the challenges they had faced since winning the hosting bid in 2017. The games had also received support from various parties, including an international school that offered them venues, the co-chair added.

Last year, Hong Kong Gay Games founder and former leader Dennis Philipse announced that he was stepping down, citing “continuing uncertainty” over the city’s international travel regulations during the Covid-19 pandemic.

When asked during her radio appearance about censorship in Hong Kong, and whether participants would be allowed to express their own opinions, Lam expressed confidence that censorship would not be an issue. She added that she hoped “all participants from around the globe could abide by local laws and respect local culture.”

Lawmakers’ criticism

In 2021, pro-Beijing lawmakers Junius Ho and Priscilla Leung lashed out at the government for supporting the Gay Games. 

During a Legislative Council meeting that June, Ho said Hong Kong did not want the event’s “dirty money” – the organiser expected it to attract HK$1 billion worth of revenue to the city – adding that he was worried it might lead to legalizing same-sex marriage in the future. 

Leung, said at the same meeting that the Gay Games might divide society and doubted whether the government would impart the same effort to promote heterosexual monogamy.

A 2018 study showed that most Hongkongers support same-sex marriage. By 2020, opposition to LGBTQ+ rights had reached a record low, with 60 per cent of survey respondents saying they agreed there should be legal safeguards against discrimination based on sexual orientation in Hong Kong.

Regarding the controversies related to the Gay Games, Lam said the event was open to everyone, not just a particular group of people, and expressed hope that it would promote dialogue between people with different opinions.

The seven-day event will include a range of sporting events, as well as art and cultural programmes such as concerts featuring local and international artists, exhibitions, and a festival village. The diverse programme aims to celebrate the richness of LGBTQ+ culture, the organiser said.

The Hong Kong edition will also feature new sporting events, including mahjong and dragon boat competitions. All events, except for the mahjong competition, have found their venues, mostly in private locations. 

“This is Hong Kong’s time, especially as we emerge strongly from the pandemic. By celebrating diversity, love and inclusivity, Gay Games will help show the world the liveliness and vibrancy of Hong Kong this November,” Lam said during Tuesday’s press conference.

The total economic impact on Paris – the host of the last Gay Games in 2017 – of this global event was over 100 million euros, according to the Federation of Gay Games.

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Organisers of a biomedical innovations event consisting of an exclusively male 22-speaker line-up has defended the gender disparity.

The event was held last week at the Science Park in Shatin and was supported by the University of Hong Kong, InvestHK, the Hong Kong Startup Council, and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council.

Organisers, the Advanced Biomedical Instrumentation Centre, said they had invited female scientists, but those who accepted were ultimately all men: “Their [female scientists] participation is essential,” a spokesperson told Ming Pao. It added that there were two women acting as hosts for the discussion.

The event was co-organised by Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation.

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Hong Kong authorities are exploring outlawing “intra-racial” discrimination between Hongkongers and mainland Chinese. The head of the city’s equality watchdog said he hoped relevant amendments would pass this year.

Ricky Chu, the chairperson of the Equal Opportunities Commission, told RTHK on Tuesday morning that he hoped to better regulate discriminatory behaviour against mainland Chinese in Hong Kong by adding the criteria of a person’s homeland or residential identity to existing racial discrimination laws.

He said the proposed amendment would mean that all those from mainland China – including new immigrants, permanent residents, tourists or students – would be protected from discrimination.

When asked whether laughing at someone’s accent would be discriminatory, Chu said behaviours targeting accent or language alone would not constitute discrimination, as “people who speak Mandarin do not necessarily come from the mainland.”

“However… speaking Mandarin or speaking with an accent can indicate where you are from,” Chu said, adding that “if you are being discriminated based on where you come from… we think that will be illegal.”

Meanwhile, Chu said the commission had been in discussions with the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau and the Department of Justice, but he did not have a concrete timeframe for when the drafted amendments would be tabled to the legislature.

The equality watchdog chief added that he hoped the amendments would be completed this year.

Chu said the authorities were still deciding which areas to cover. He said some examples of discrimination against mainland Chinese went beyond the existing scope of Hong Kong’s racial discrimination laws, which cover issues of employment, education, travel and residence.

“When we carried out our research in 2016, there were mainland visitors being impolitely treated while shopping, or getting their luggage kicked. But do such incidents still occur?” Chu asked.

In 2016, localist protesters in Hong Kong rallied in different hot spots for mainland travellers to drive away what they called “overwhelming parallel trading activities.”

Sexual minorities

During a Legislative Council panel meeting on Monday, lawmaker Regina Ip said she was “disappointed” that Chu had not mentioned the rights of sexual minorities in the equality watchdog’s annual brief.

Citing recent rulings in Hong Kong courts in favour of sexual minorities, Ip said “the government has lost enough [cases] that it dares not engage in another lawsuit.”

“In terms of law, you don’t need to do much, as the court has made all the decisions for you. I think at this time and moment, you should write up a document to report [what has happened in court] to the society and the legislature,” Ip said.

When asked about the legislator’s suggestion on Tuesday’s radio programme, Chu said sexual minorities were not covered by existing discriminatory laws and therefore drafting up such a report would be out of the scope of the equality commission.

“What we are looking into now is whether terms and conditions can be added to existing sexual discrimination laws to protect this community,” Chu said.

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Ryousuke, a deaf transgender man, was excited to finally be able to change the gender marker on his Hong Kong identity card after undergoing full sex reassignment surgery (SRS) last November.

However, his application, which was submitted to the Immigration Department in January, was suspended in February following a top court ruling ostensibly in favour of transgender individuals.

Under current regulations, transgender individuals must undergo full SRS before they are allowed to change the gender marker on their ID card.

But the Court of Final Appeal ruled on February 6 that the policy was in violation of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights, and that the rule “imposes an unacceptably harsh burden on the individuals concerned.”

Following the ruling, the Immigration Department stated on its website that the department “is studying the judgement carefully and reviewing” the policy, and that it “shall seek legal advice on follow up actions to comply with the judgement.”

The department’s website did not specify how the ruling would affect those who have undergone full SRS, or that the processing of applications to change gender markers would be suspended.

The Immigration Department told HKFP on Friday night that it aimed to complete the policy review “in reasonable time.” However, the department did not respond directly as to why applications from transgender individuals who have undergone full SRS have been suspended.

The department also said that when it came to handling cases of to people with disabilities, it would “adopt appropriate measures” in a cautious manner to care for the needs of different individuals. There were also access officers on duty in each office to provide help to those who needed it, the department said.

While the top court decision was a victory for his community, it should not have impacted Ryousuke, who had fulfilled the full SRS requirement under the existing rules.

“When I completed all my operations, I was really happy, and I was preparing to apply to change my ID card,” Ryousuke said though his interpreter.

“Who would have thought that they would tell me my [application] was suspended. I think it is very unreasonable… It was like going from heaven to hell, and I am furious.”

Ryousuke filed his application to the Immigration Department on January 12, and received a letter from the department on January 19 saying that it had received his application on January 17.

However, when he went alone to the Registration of Persons Offices in Kwun Tong on February 17, just over a week after the top court ruling was made, Ryousuke was told that his application would be delayed because of the court decision.

Ryousuke said that the officer communicated with him by writing on pieces of paper, but the notes were thrown away before he could take them. In the end, the officer gestured to Ryousuke, telling him to go home.

“I did not really understand what was happening… I had already completed all the surgery, why did they not let me change my ID card? The court ruling said that [the policy] has to be relaxed,” said Ryousuke through his interpreter.

“It was really unfair.”

Kenn Chan from PrideLab said that the process to change the sex entry on ID cards usually takes two to four weeks after meeting with the Immigration Department to submit all documents.

After Ryousuke’s meeting on February 17, Chan and interpreter Cat accompanied him to meet with the officer three days later. They were told that as the full SRS requirement was ruled to be unconstitutional, all applications had to be suspended until the relevant regulations were reviewed.

Removing hurdles

Changing his ID card was not only a step in Ryousuke’s journey to finding his own identity, it is also a crucial step in eliminating hurdles in his day-to-day life as a deaf person.

As a holder of an Octopus card for people with disability, Ryousuke is often stopped by MTR staff members to check his eligibility, a process that is complicated by not having an ID card with a male gender marker.

As the photos on his Octopus card and his other identification documents looked very different to how Ryousuke looks now, he is frequently suspected of using another person’s identity.

“Sometimes it takes very long for me to explain, and I can be late because of this,” said Ryousuke. “I won’t know if my employer will fire me for being late so often.”

As a result, Ryousuke carries a stack of documents with him, from doctor’s letters to his passport, whenever he goes out.

“Now I always carry doctor’s notes and identification documents, when one document does not work, I give them the next one,” said Ryousuke.

Linus Chan, administrative director of PrideLab, said that an ID card reflecting a person’s acquired gender would solve many of the daily problems faced by transgender people.

“Even for someone who is not deaf, if you have to come out of the closet in public… and explain what surgery you have undergone, what are your sex organs, it is in itself a very humiliating process, and very difficult for many people,” said Chan.

PrideLab urged the Immigration Department to resume handling the applications from people who have already satisfied the original requirement, and complete the regulation amendment to comply with the top court ruling within three months.

Calling a deaf person

Ryousuke’s application to change his ID card was further complicated by the Immigration Department’s lack of support for deaf people.

According to Chan, there was no option for Ryousuke to write down his email address – or to indicate that he was deaf – on the Immigration Department’s application form.

Ryousuke missed a call from the department on January 20, and had to ask a friend to call them back on the same day.

While his friend told the officer who answered the phone that Ryousuke is deaf, and asked them to communicate with him through email, when Ryousuke went to his appointment on February 17, the officer denied the department had received that call.

Chan said that Ryousuke provided his email address on another Immigration Department form, but the department still chose to call him instead of emailing.

“I understand that calling is much more direct, and sending letters is slow,” Chan said. “However, why did [the department] not use email, when it is such a reliable and quick means which can also provide a written record?”

PrideLab also called on the Immigration Department to review its forms to allow those in need to choose communication methods that suit them.

While the officer who met with Ryousuke said there was room for improvement and that they would reflect the situation to their superior, Ryousuke has since filed a complaint to the Equal Opportunities Commission, and is awaiting the watchdog’s response.

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