Top Court in Hong Kong rules in favour of same-sex couple inheritance rights

Hong Kong’s highest court has ruled in favor of same-sex couples, affirming their rights to housing and inheritance, marking a significant victory for the LGBTQ community.

The Court of Final Appeal sided with the city’s LGBTQ advocates by rejecting appeals filed by the Hong Kong government against earlier rulings that upheld LGBTQ rights, ALJAZEERA reported on Tuesday.

In two separate rulings issued on Tuesday, Chief Justice Andrew Cheung stated that the court had unanimously dismissed the government’s appeals.

The government’s legal representative, Monica Carss-Frisk, had argued that the city’s housing policies were intended to promote “procreation” among opposite-sex couples.

However, in his decision, Chief Justice Cheung rejected this argument, stating that the policy that excludes same-sex couples from public rental housing and subsidized flats under the Home Ownership Scheme was “untenable.”

He explained that for same-sex married couples facing financial hardship, the government’s exclusionary stance could essentially prevent them from having any real chance to live together as a family.

ALSO READ: Biden proposes expanding obesity drug coverage under Medicare, Medicaid

“For needy same-sex married couples who cannot afford private rental accommodation, the [government’s] exclusionary policy could well mean depriving them of any realistic opportunity of sharing family life under the same roof at all,” Cheung remarked.

On the matter of inheritance, Judges Joseph Fok and Roberto Ribeiro also found in favor of same-sex couples.

In their ruling, the judges stated that the government had failed to provide adequate justification for its differential treatment of same-sex couples in inheritance matters.

The existing legal framework, which excludes same-sex couples from the inheritance benefits granted to married heterosexual couples, was deemed “discriminatory and unconstitutional” by the court.

This landmark ruling brings an end to a lengthy legal struggle that began when resident Nick Infinger challenged the government’s housing policy, which excluded him and his partner from public rental housing because they were not considered an “ordinary family.”

Infinger’s case was later consolidated with that of Henry Li and his late husband, Edgar Ng, who also contested government policies excluding same-sex couples from both subsidized housing and inheritance rights.

In October 2023, both Infinger and Li succeeded in their constitutional challenge in the Hong Kong Court of Appeal, but the government appealed the case, bringing it before the Court of Final Appeal in February 2024.

This week, a panel of five judges ruled in favor of the same-sex couples, effectively securing a historic victory.

This ruling follows a partial win for LGBTQ rights in Hong Kong in September 2023, when the same court ruled against granting full marriage rights to same-sex couples.

However, the court gave the government two years to establish a framework to extend other rights to LGBTQ individuals.

Advocates are hopeful that this mandated framework will provide broader protections for LGBTQ rights in Hong Kong, reducing the need for ongoing legal battles.

The Hong Kong Marriage Equality advocacy group welcomed Tuesday’s rulings but urged the government to “immediately end the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage.”

Public opinion on same-sex marriage in Hong Kong is growing, with a joint survey by three universities showing 60 percent support for same-sex marriage last year.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE