The Hong Kong High Court (Photo by Johnson Lau, via Wikimedia Commons)
Hong Kong’s High Court has either abolished or revised seven statutes criminalizing sex between men, according to a report published today (Thursday, May 30) by the South China Morning Post.
The High Court ruled that four criminal offenses were unconstitutional and immediately repealed them while revising interpretations of three offenses. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed against the government by LGBT activist Yeung Chu-wing in 2017.
The seven statutes being challenged were all part of Hong Kong’s Crimes Ordinance. They made gay men men criminally liable for acts that are legal for heterosexuals and, in some cases, lesbians.
The four statutes that were over-turned by Justice Thomas Au Hing-cheung were “procuring others to commit homosexual buggery,” “gross indecency with or by a man under 16,” “gross indecency by a man with a man otherwise than in private” and “procuring gross indecency by a man with a man.”
Au also changed the interpretation of three other crimes, ruling that they must now apply to women as well as men to be constitutional. Those were “homosexual buggery with or by a man under 16” “gross indecency by a man with a male mentally incapacitated person” and “permitting a young person to resort to or be on a premises or vessel for intercourse, prostitution, buggery or homosexual acts.”
Tommy Noel Chen, founder of Rainbow Action, a local LGBT rights group, told South China Morning Post that his organization has been trying to get these laws changed for more than 20 years, “But every time we fought for [changes to these law], the government either refused or delayed.”
This time, however, the secretary for justice conceded to nearly all the changes.
Local LGBT activists have brought a series of court challenges in recent years to push for greater legal rights, the newspaper notes, adding that last year, activists succeeded in getting the government to recognize same-sex marriages for the purpose of spousal visas.
