Hong Kong’s top court, the Court of Final Appeal, has issued a ruling affirming housing and inheritance rights for same-sex couples. In two separate decisions handed down on Tuesday, the court unanimously dismissed appeals lodged by the Hong Kong government against earlier rulings that had already recognized these LGBTQ+ rights. Chief Justice Andrew Cheung, in his judgment, explicitly stated that the government’s appeals had been rejected.
The government’s legal argument, presented by Monica Carss-Frisk, centered on the assertion that Hong Kong’s housing policies were specifically designed to support procreation among opposite-sex couples. However, Chief Justice Cheung decisively rejected this argument, declaring that the government’s policy of excluding same-sex couples from public rental flats and subsidized flats under the Home Ownership Scheme lacks justification. He emphasized the potentially devastating impact of this exclusionary policy on same-sex married couples in need, stating that it could effectively deprive them of any realistic chance to share family life together under one roof.
In a separate ruling addressing inheritance rights, judges Joseph Fok and Roberto Ribeiro similarly found the government’s position untenable. They concluded that the authorities had failed to provide a valid justification for the differential treatment of same-sex couples in inheritance matters. The judges deemed the existing rules, which prevent same-sex couples from accessing the same benefits as heterosexual married couples when distributing a deceased person’s estate, to be discriminatory and unconstitutional.
This legal victory culminates a six-year legal battle initiated by resident Nick Infinger, who challenged the government’s policy that excluded him and his partner from public rental housing due to their same-sex relationship. His case was subsequently consolidated with that of another couple, Henry Li and his late husband Edgar Ng, who similarly challenged government policies on subsidized housing and discriminatory inheritance rules affecting same-sex couples. Infinger and Li initially won their constitutional challenge in the Hong Kong Court of Appeal in October 2023. However, the government appealed this decision to the Court of Final Appeal, leading to this week’s ruling by the five-judge panel.
The Court of Final Appeal’s decision follows a partial victory for LGBTQ+ rights in Hong Kong in September 2023. In that instance, the same court ruled against granting full marriage rights to same-sex couples but mandated that the government establish a framework within two years to extend other rights to same-sex couples. LGBTQ+ activists have expressed hope that this mandated framework will offer more comprehensive protection, reducing the need for piecemeal legal victories.
The rulings have been met with praise from advocacy groups, such as Hong Kong Marriage Equality, which while celebrating this significant step forward, urged the government to immediately end the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage. Public support for same-sex marriage in Hong Kong is reportedly growing, reaching 60 percent in a survey conducted by three universities last year.
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