Hong Kong trans woman launches fight to marry
A trans woman in Hong King has begun a legal fight for the right to marry her boyfriend.
The woman, who has not been named, is barred under city law from changing her birth certificate to female.
Authorities told her that her marriage would be classed as a same-sex marriage, which is not legal.
The woman is in her twenties and has only been identified as ‘W’. She transitioned several years ago.
China, as well as the US and UK, allows trans people to marry once they have completed transition.
However, Hong Kong authorities have denied her request. Bizarrely, city law would allow W to marry as a woman, as she would be recognised by the marriage registry as a man.
Speaking through an interpreter, she told the BBC: “I don’t want to go to other countries to marry. I am a Hong Kong citizen. I have a right to marry here.
“The Hong Kong government allows us to have the sex change, but they don’t allow us to marry.
“But for women to want to get married to the person they love is just normal.”
W’s lawyer Mike Vidler said: “We’re not asking for any changes in the law. We’re just saying that that law that says only a man and a woman – to the exclusion of all others – amounts to a marriage, then W is a woman.
“Therefore she should be treated as a woman for the purposes of that ordinance.”
Mr Vidler will argue that the city’s position violates its de facto constitution, the Basic Law.
