Hong Kong is a Chinese city and, more significantly, a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.

The government proposed to introduce a law that would make it more difficult for homosexuals to rent or buy public housing. On 17 October, a Hong Kong court dismissed government’s bid because it found it to be "discriminatory in nature" and denied the rights of LGBTQ+ people.

Hong Kong's Court of Appeal decided that it is "unconstitutional and unlawful" to deny public housing to same-sex couples who married abroad.

The appeals involved two cases. In one of the cases, a permanent resident was refused not only to rent, but even to apply for permission to rent public housing. The man wanted to move in with his husband who he had married in Canada. Their relationship is not recognised by Chinese law.

In the second case, the government did not allow an LGBT couple to purchase a government-subsidised flat together.

Activists working in Hong Kong on behalf of the LGBT community stress that discrimination experienced by people of a different orientation or gender identity should have no place in public policy.

"The differential treatment in the present cases is a more severe form of indirect discrimination than most cases because the criterion is one which same-sex couples can never meet," Reuters reports the judges said in their ruling

The Hong Kong court does not recognise same-sex marriages, but at the same time acknowledges the need for same-sex couples "for access to an alternative legal framework in order to meet basic social requirements".

The government was committed to creating legal alternatives for LGBT people within the next two years.

Source: reuters.com