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The notice was published in the Kenya Gazette/FILE

World

Hong Kong transsexual wins fight to marry her boyfriend

The court will suspend the decision for 12 months allowing time for the government to amend the city’s marriage laws.

Human rights activists welcomed the ruling saying that it was a step in the right direction in recognising the rights of people from sexual minorities.

The judiciary’s decision may affect the willingness of the government to “accept changes in light of modern gender issues or rights of minorities,” Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor director Law Yuk-kai told AFP.

The decision “enables a person of sexual minority to recover and enjoy the rights to form a family at their own free will,” he said.

In rejecting W’s case in 2010, a lower court had concluded there was insufficient evidence “to demonstrate a shifted societal consensus in present-day Hong Kong regarding marriage to encompass a post-operative transsexual”.

W’s lawyers had previously argued that many countries have allowed transsexual people to marry the opposite sex in their new gender, including mainland China since 2004, as well as Japan and Australia.

In November last year Hong Kong’s Legislative Council voted down a motion to launch a public consultation on the implementation of anti-discrimination laws to protect sexual minorities.

Thousands of Christians took to the streets to protest against any such laws, claiming they would restrict freedom of speech.

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