Ms W Finally Wins The Right To Marry!

The third time was finally the charm for Ms W in her nearly three year long Hong Kong court battle to marry her boyfriend.

After losing two previous rounds in court, she finally prevailed Monday at the Court of Final Appeals level in a 4-1 decision and won a groundbreaking ruling for transpeople in Hong Kong in the process.

The Registrar of Marriages had argued that because her birth certificate couldn't be altered under Hong Kong law and said she was male, she could not wed her boyfriend.

Ms W argued the previous adverse court rulings were a violation of her constitutional rights and the Hong Kong government subsidized her SRS back in 2008. 

"It is contrary to principle to focus merely on biological features fixed at the time of birth," the court said in a written judgement by the panel of five judges.

It added that existing laws "impair the very essence of W's right to marry"

The court said the nature of marriage as a social institution had "undergone far-reaching changes" in a multi-cultural present day Hong Kong.

However, the five judge panel stopped short in this ruling of allowing same gender marriage in Hong Kong. 
Ms W according to her attorney Michael Vidler was overjoyed at the landmark ruling, which not only allows her to marry her boyfriend, but orders Hong Kong to rewrite their marriage law to allow trans women to marry cis men and trans men to marry cis women.

Vidler read a statement by the now thritysomething Ms. W to reporters in which she said,"I have lived my life as a woman and been treated as a woman in all respects except as regards my right to marriage. This decision rights that wrong."


"I am very happy that the court of appeal now recognizes my desire to marry my boyfriend one day and that that desire is no different to that of any other women who seek the same here in Hong Kong," W said.

"This is a victory for all women in Hong Kong."

Interestingly enough had Ms W lived in mainland China, she would have been able to get married.  China's marriage were changed and clarified in 2003 to allow transpeople to get married to their opposite gender partners.  Hong Kong as an autonomous Special Administrative Region is still under British law.

The landmark ruling brings Hong Kong in line on the issue of trans marriage with other Asia-Pacific Rim nations such as mainland China, Singapore, India, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.   Out of all those Asia-Pacific Rim nations, only New Zealand allows same sex couples to marry.

After Joanne Cassar's win in Malta and this one for Ms. W, can Nikki Araguz make it three in a row for international trans human rights with a trans marriage win here in Texas? 

Ms W is going to have to wait another 12 months for the landmark ruling to take effect and give the Hong Kong government time to rewrite the marriage laws, but she'll probably spend that time planning her wedding.

Ms W's Final Trans Marriage Legal Appeal Starts

TransGriot Note: Here's another one you can e-mail to Karin Quimby

Been keeping up with along with my trans sisters in the Asia-Pacific Rim region and around the world the case of Ms. W ever since it started back in 2010.

It's also an example along with the now resolved Joanne Cassar case of how the same-gender marriage push has deleteriously affected the ability of transwomen in some areas of the world to get married. 

She's the transwoman who is now in her 30's that has been fighting a pitched legal battle in Hong Kong to have her rights recognized to marry her boyfriend.

She was back in court on her final two day appeal of this landmark legal case that started Monday (Sunday US time)   Ms W is seeking to overturn two previous rulings that went against her and had the effect of keeping the ban on her getting married (along with other transpeople in Hong Kong) in place.  

The city's Registrar of Marriages is claiming that since her birth certificate states she was born male and it can't be changed, she is still male despite having government funded SRS in Hong Kong and Ms. W changing all other identity documents to reflect her life as a female.

And as you probably guessed, only marriages between male and female couples are recognized in Hong Kong.   Never mind the fact that Ms W has done everything possible including a government funded genital surgery to be recognized as female. 

“We say the laws of marriage can and should recognize that sexual identity can change,” W’s attorney David Pannick told the court in his opening arguments.

“The right to marry is fundamental... the birth certificate is a record of historical facts,” he said, adding that W is now “medically, psychologically and socially” a woman.

Pannick said the Registrar of Marriages should recognize his client’s new gender, which is stated in official documents like her identity card and passport, and a denial of her bid to marry violates her constitutional rights.

Well, duh.  It's obvious to any of us without law degrees looking at it simply on the face of the human rights issues that Hong Kong is violating Ms. W's human and constitutional rights, but unfortunately we aren't the people wearing judicial robes and making the ruling on this case.

And it's even more ironic that if Ms W were living across the border in China and not in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region that's under British law, she would have been happily married a few years ago. 

Here's hoping the judges in this case do the right thing, overturn the two previous jacked up rulings and let our trans sister (and everyone else in Hong Kong who would like to) get married.   
  

Ms. W Gets Another Legal Setback In Her Trans Marriage Rights Fight

I have been keeping an eye on the Ms W case, in which a twentysomthing Hong Kong transwoman was battling for the right to marry her cis boyfriend

Ms.W has undergone SRS in a public hospital, possessed a new ID with her female gender indicated on it and school records had been reissued to record her as female.

However, the Hong Kong Government had refused to alter her birth certificate and the Registrar of Marriages also refused to allow her to marry her boyfriend.

Ms.W was rebuffed by the Hong Kong Court of First Instance and she and her attorney Michael Vidler appealed her case to the Hong Kong Court of Appeal.

It was recently heard on October 12-13 according to the Singapore based website Fridae.com in front of Honourable Justices of Appeal Robert V.P. Tang, Michael J. Hartmann and Joseph J.A. Fok.  

The judgment was handed down on November 25, and it was another legal setback for Ms.W as her appeal was unanimously dismissed while using the odious Corbett vs Corbett case as the basis for doing so.

This puts Hong Kong in the position of being an island of trans legal intolerance when it comes to trans marriage issues while Asian-Pacific neighbors such as mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, Thailand, New Zealand and Australia along with almost all the nations in the European Union with the exception of Malta recognize the right of transwomen to marry.

Ms.W is going to continue fighting for her right to marry her partner and has once again appealed her case to Hong Kong's highest court, the Court of Final Appeal.  

Let's hope and pray for her sake and for those of us who fight for the human rights of transpeople Ms. W has much better luck at this level than she's had so far at the lover levels of the Hong Kong judicial system.

Monica Carss-Frisk, This Is An Example Of The Discrimination You Enabled In Hong Kong

British attorney Monica Carss-Frisk was hired by the Hong Kong government to successfully litigate on its behalf in the recent Ms W marriage case.

Hope you're enjoying the money you made on the case and can sleep well at night knowing that you contributed to the continued oppression of transpeople in Hong Kong.

As we marginalized peeps know all too well, court cases we lose have negative consequences and ripple effects that not only affect things locally, but sometimes travel beyond the jurisdiction in which they were litigated. 

STRAP chair Naomi Fontanos recounts on her PinayTG blog a recent trip with Santy Layno to lecture on trans discrimination issues at Hong Kong University at the invitation of Dr. Sam Winter.

After a successful lecture they went out for a drink with Dr. Winter only to be whacked with the same discrimination that they had just lectured about.

Okay Hong Kong, when are you going to stop discriminating against my trans family living there? 


It's ironic they have more rights in mainland China than the so-called freedom loving former British colony and world class city that is now a Chinese Special Administrative Region.. 
 
And thank you, Monica Carss-Frisk, for doing your part to ensure that the discrimination against transpeople in Hong Kong continues.

Hong Kong Trans Marriage Case Update

I posted about the start of a trans marriage case that could impact the Araguz one that will resume August 16.

Post operative transwoman Ms. W is suing for the right to marry her longtime boyfriend. Hong Kong Registrar of Marriages ruled last year that because her birth certificate still lists her as male, she can't despite the fact her identity card lists her as female.

The Hong Kong Marriage Ordinance says marriage can only be a union between a man and a woman. However, mainland China allows transpeople to marry.

On Tuesday Monica Carss-Frisk of Britain, the lawyer hired by the Hong Kong government to represent them in this case because they have no one locally that was familiar with how the law impacted trans people, argued that the existing law did not accommodate transgender marriage and it was up to the legislature to decide.

"If there is a desire to change attitude, then the legislature can seek to do that," she told the court.

Carss-Frisk warned that any judicial attempt to broaden or re-interpret the legal definition of "man" and "woman" would create uncertainties in the law.

Ms. W's lawyer Michael Vidler pointed out that other Asian nations such as mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia and Japan allow trans people to marry the opposite sex in their new gender.

Stay tuned, and keep praying that Ms. W wins.

Hong Kong Transwoman Fights For Her Marriage Rights

Here's another example of the how the GL push for same gender marriage has had a deleterious effect on the ability of transpeople to get married.

Thanks to my sis Leona Lo, I heard about this Hong Kong case.

Trans people in South Korea, Singapore, Japan, parts of Europe and even parts of mainland China have the right to get married and do. You would think that Hong Kong would also follow suit because it was ruled by Britain for 156 years until it reverted back to Chinese control in 1997.

Nope.

Despite its worldwide image as a modern, cosmopolitan city, Hong Kong is a largely traditional and conservative society where GLBT groups inside and outside of it often complain of intolerance, harassment and discrimination.

Thanks to growing 'Christian' fundamentalism in Hong Kong, it's getting worse for transpeople. Like everywhere else on the planet, the Hong Kong fundies have targeted transpeople as their 'Great Satan' to organize and rally against.

A twentysomething post operative transwoman is gearing up for a Hong Kong High Court battle to marry her boyfriend. She was told the reason she cannot do so is because Hong Kong law only recognizes marriages between a couple born as male and female.

Hong Kong transpeople can change their identity cards and school certificates to reflect their gender identity and be recognized as such, but do not have the right to marry someone of their birth gender.

And there's the rub. Someone in the Registry of Marriages has failed to note the simple fact that a transwoman, be she pre, post or non operative is a woman, period.

That means she does have the right to get married to any man, cis or transgender and this is NOT a same gender marriage.

In a landmark care in Hong Kong, a judicial review of the adverse ruling by the Registrar of Marriages is being conducted.

The transwoman in question has requested anonymity as she fights this ruling. and her attorney, Michael Vidler, said his client had undergone SRS within the past five years after years of gender therapy.

He told Wednesday's South China Morning Post that she was now "pleased to be a woman" and was in a stable relationship with her boyfriend.

The registrar's decision had "disregarded the gender therapy, ignored the reassignment surgery and deprived transsexuals of their human rights," Vidler told the newspaper.

A hearing was expected to take place in the next two weeks to set a date for a full hearing into the case.

But it's a travesty she's having to fight so hard just to marry the person she loves.