Representatives for the Hong Kong government have argued that same-sex marriage would render marriages ‘no longer special’ in what could be a landmark case for the nation.
Hong Kong’s High Court is current hearing the case of MK, a lesbian woman arguing that not being allowed to marry her partner is a denial of equality and privacy.
Hong Kong Free Press have reported that government lawyer Stuart Wong told the High Court that “not all differences in treatment are unlawful. You are not supposed to treated unequal cases alike.”
“To recognise an alternative form of same-sex relationships which we say is tantamount to a [marriage] is to undermine the traditional institution of marriage and the family constituted by such a marriage.”
The case is one of three currently before Hong Kong courts, which have been buoyed by the recent passage of marriage equality legislation in neighbouring Taiwan.
Hong Kong currently does not recognise any official same-sex partnerships, nor offer any discrimination protections for LGBTI+ people.
Advocacy group Hong Kong Marriage Equality have disputed Wong’s comments in the High Court, saying that “marriage equality doesn’t make marriage less special, it makes it even stronger.”
“That’s what the opposers don’t understand. We are making it our mission to help them come around.”
OIP Staff
