Landmark LGBT case heard in top court

HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s top court is hearing the final appeal of a landmark LGBT rights case that has garnered public support from over 30 top global banks and law firms, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Marriage is legally defined as a monogamous union between a man and a woman in Hong Kong, where the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community’s fight for legal rights has received support from multinational companies.

A British lesbian, known as QT, sued the director of immigration for denying her a spousal visa after her partner moved to the Chinese-ruled financial hub for work, even though they had entered into a civil partnership in Britain.

The government filed an appeal after QT won the case in the Court of Appeal in September.

The immigration policy was discriminatory as it placed gay couples at a great disadvantage, QT’s lawyer, Dinah Rose, QC, told Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal, yesterday

“Every single gay couple is unable to comply with the policy,” she pointed out, adding that it was “unprecedented” that so many private corporations had applied to intervene in a human rights case, even though the court had dismissed their applications.

“The businesses are concerned that the discrimination is impeding their ability to recruit the best people, gay or straight, to work in Hong Kong, so Hong Kong can compete and thrive in an international market,” Rose said.

Hong Kong’s director of immigration was not obliged to recognise same-sex marriages, because current Hong Kong laws do not do so, said Lord David Pannick, QC, representing the government.

“He may choose to go further than that, but he has no duty to do so,” Pannick, who appeared against the British government in a Brexit case, told the panel of five Hong Kong judges.