Start GRASP/China Giving Hong Kong visas to same-sex spouses will undermine marriage’s status, Court...

Giving Hong Kong visas to same-sex spouses will undermine marriage’s status, Court of Final Appeal told

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City officials employ recent judgment from case of same-sex spousal benefits, saying director of immigration was right to deny papers to unnamed British lesbian
The special status of marriage will be undermined if Hong Kong authorities give dependant visas to gay spouses, the director of immigration argued in appeal to the city’s top court on Monday.
But Dinah Rose QC countered that it did not apply to the present case – of her client, a British lesbian denied a dependant visa – as she argued such a visa is not a spousal benefit and that it has “no rational link” to the city’s traditional values when it affects only foreign nationals.
She said her client was subject to a “particularly severe form of indirect discrimination, close to direct discrimination”.
Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li also questioned “whether the director of immigration is the right person to uphold values of marriage”.
“Indeed, My Lord,” Rose replied. “The claimant is not seeking to have her partnership recognised under Hong Kong law. All she is seeking is an immigration visa.”
Ma and his panel of four other judges at the Court of Final Appeal reserved judgment.
The case, which drew a full house in court, centred on the director’s refusal to grant the Briton, identified only as QT in court, a dependant visa after she moved to Hong Kong in 2011 with her partner SS, who had been offered a job in the city.
QT applied for a judicial review in 2014 after the Immigration Department rejected her application for a dependant visa, then appealed upon losing her case at the Court of First Instance.

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