A Hong Kong court on Tuesday upheld a ruling that grants equal inheritance rights to same-sex couples.
The Court of Appeal rejected the government’s motion to block the ruling, which said same-sex couples can enjoy such rights under the city’s two inheritance laws.
The rulings came out of a lawsuit filed in 2019 by Edgar Ng, who was concerned that if he died without a will, his properties would not be passed on to his partner, Henri Li. The two married in London in 2017. Ng died in 2020.
A spokesman for the advocacy group Hong Kong Marriage Equality said the right thing for the government to do is create a comprehensive system to govern same-sex partnerships.
This latest ruling marks another legal victory for Hong Kong’s LGBTQ community.
The Court of Appeal last week upheld an earlier ruling that said same-sex married couples have the right to rent or own public housing.
In September, Hong Kong’s High Court urged the Chinese territory’s legislature to create an “alternative legal framework” that would recognize same-sex partnerships.
The Court of Final Appeal ruled on a lawsuit filed by pro-democracy activist Jimmy Sham, who has been seeking to have his 2013 same-sex marriage in New York legally recognized but has been rejected by two lower courts.
The High Court refused to recognize full marriage equality for same-sex couples but said the government had a responsibility “to provide them with a sense of legitimacy, dispelling any sense that they belong to an inferior class of persons whose relationship is undeserving of recognition.”
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
