The Hong Kong Legislative Council voted towards a controversial invoice on Wednesday that might have allowed some same-sex {couples} to register their partnership legally. It was opposed by 71 votes to 14, leaving Hong Kong’s native authorities lower than two months to adjust to their high court docket’s ruling.
The invoice follows a 2023 Hong Kong Courtroom of Last Enchantment (HKCFA) case that challenged a gay couple’s proper to be acknowledged as married. The couple had been married in New York since 2013, and had been attempting to get acknowledged since 2018. The HKCFA gave the federal government a two-year deadline, October 27, 2025, to ascertain an alternate authorized framework recognizing already present same-sex marriages.
To satisfy their obligation, the federal government proposed a brand new registration system in July 2025. The system would enable for {couples} who had been already married abroad to register, nevertheless it nonetheless doesn’t presently enable Hong Kong identical intercourse {couples} to get married. The court docket had confirmed in Sham Tsz Package v. Secretary for Justice that “beneath Hong Kong legislation, same-sex {couples} should not have entry to the establishment of marriage”, however “entry to an alternate framework for authorized recognition of their relationship has been compellingly advocated”.
Nevertheless, roughly 80 % of legislators rejected this invoice, in worry of destabilizing Hong Kong’s conventional household values. Amnesty Worldwide criticized the choice, with Nadia Rahman, Coverage Advisor on Gender, stating that “lawmakers have proven an alarming disdain for LGBTI rights” by rejecting the invoice. Simply earlier than the vote, the human rights group, together with over 30 worldwide organizations, had urged the federal government in a joint letter to ensure the invoice’s authorized recognition, stating the present invoice already “falls far in need of each worldwide human rights requirements and the federal government’s proclaimed commitments in advancing equality, inclusion and respect for variety”.
On condition that the invoice would have granted same-sex {couples} from overseas the best to solely make medical choices and post-death preparations; its rejection by legislators stands in distinction to the courts regularly extra versatile stance on equal rights and pro-LGBTI social actions.
The Legislative Council now has 51 days to revise and re-propose a brand new invoice as a way to respect the HKCFA’s ruling and adjust to what the court docket has acknowledged as a “primary social want”.
