HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s top court ruled on Tuesday in favour of same-sex partnerships including civil unions but stopped short of granting full marriage rights in a partial win for the territory’s LGBTQ community.
Over the past decade, LGBTQ activists in the former British colony have won piecemeal victories in court, striking down discriminatory government policies on visas, taxes and housing benefits.
But the case brought by jailed pro-democracy activist Jimmy Sham is the first time the Court of Final Appeal has directly addressed the issue of same-sex marriage.
In its ruling, the court declared that the Hong Kong government “is in violation of its positive obligation … to establish an alternative framework for legal recognition of same-sex partnerships”, such as civil unions.
But it stopped short of making a decision of full marriage equality for same-sex…
