Bruce Cockburn: 50 years of music, spirituality and social justice | SaltWireHONG KONG - A Hong Kong court on Tuesday dismissed a government bid to deny same-sex married couples the right to rent and own public housing saying that it was"discriminatory in nature" and a complete denial of such couples' rights.
The government had challenged two High Court rulings that it was"unconstitutional and unlawful" for the city's housing authority to exclude same-sex couples who married abroad from public housing. The other involved a same-sex couple who were denied joint-ownership of a government-subsidised flat by the authority because their marriage in Britain was not recognised in Hong Kong.
"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," the judges said in their ruling.Rights group Hong Kong Marriage Equality also welcomed the decision saying it had made clear"that discrimination and unequal treatment on the ground of sexual orientation has no place in public policy decisions".