The Government of Hong Kong again demonstrates its narrow and non-inclusive thinking, as its lawyers in a landmark same-sex marriage court case argue that allowing same-sex couples to wed would leave marriage ‘no longer special’ and ‘diluted and diminished’.
A lesbian woman, known as MK, is arguing in Hong Kong’s High Court that preventing her from forming a partnership contravenes her rights to equality and privacy. But, on Wednesday (29 May), government lawyer Stuart Wong said: ‘Not all differences in treatment are unlawful. You are not supposed to treat unequal cases alike’. Wong also dismissed calls for same-sex civil partnerships as an alternative to marriage.
Potentially revealing from where this thinking may originate, Beijing on the same day signalled that it would not take inspiration from Taiwan’s thought- and legislative-leadership in creating a formalised marriage structure for its LGBT citizens. Last week, Taiwan made history as the first in Asia to register same-sex couples’ marriages. Whereupon, the spokesperson for China’s policy-making Taiwan Affairs Office said, we have ‘noted reports on the island’ about same-sex marriage. ‘The mainland has a marriage system of one man, one woman’ he said, according to Reuters.
[ insert hyperlink on “Reuters” to https://www.openlynews.com/i/?id=65bc4007-2354-4278-938d-49cbeeae7522 ]
The Government of Hong Kong again demonstrates its narrow and non-inclusive thinking, as its lawyers in a landmark same-sex marriage court case argue that allowing same-sex couples to wed would leave marriage ‘no longer special’ and ‘diluted and diminished’.
A lesbian woman, known as MK, is arguing in Hong Kong’s High Court that preventing her from forming a partnership contravenes her rights to equality and privacy. But, on Wednesday (29 May), government lawyer Stuart Wong said: ‘Not all differences in treatment are unlawful. You are not supposed to treat unequal cases alike’. Wong also dismissed calls for same-sex civil partnerships as an alternative to marriage.
Potentially revealing from where this thinking may originate, Beijing on the same day signalled that it would not take inspiration from Taiwan’s thought- and legislative-leadership in creating a formalised marriage structure for its LGBT citizens. Last week, Taiwan made history as the first in Asia to register same-sex couples’ marriages. Whereupon, the spokesperson for China’s policy-making Taiwan Affairs Office said, we have ‘noted reports on the island’ about same-sex marriage. ‘The mainland has a marriage system of one man, one woman’ he said, according to Reuters.
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