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In response to the judgment handed down by the Court of Final Appeal (CFA) today (May 13) in W v Registrar of Marriages (FACV 4 of 2012) regarding a judicial review case on the right of post-operative transsexuals to marry in their reassigned sex, a spokesman for the Security Bureau issued the following statement:
"The Administration respects the CFA's judgment, allowing the appeal. The CFA has invited the parties to the appeal to lodge submissions in writing by June 3 in respect of the appropriate Orders to be made in the light of the Court's judgment. We are studying the judgment carefully and will make submissions to the Court in due course."
Subject to possible modifications in light of parties' written submissions, the CFA is minded to declare that: (i) consistent with Article 37 of the Basic Law and Article 19(2) of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights, section 20(1)(d) of the Matrimonial Causes Ordinance (MCO) (Cap 179) and section 40 of the Marriage Ordinance (MO) (Cap 181) must be read and given effect so as to include within the meaning of the words "woman" and "female" a post-operative male-to-female transsexual person whose gender has been certified by an appropriate medical authority to have changed as a result of sex reassignment surgery, and that (ii) the Appellant is in law entitled to be included as "a woman" under relevant provisions of the MO and MCO and is eligible to marry a man.
Subject to consideration of the parties' written submissions, the CFA proposes to suspend the operation of the above-mentioned declarations for a period of 12 months from the date of the Court's orders to be made.
The applicant ("W"), a male-to-female transsexual who had undergone complete sex reassignment surgeries, applied for judicial review in November 2009 against the decision of Registrar of Marriages refusing her request to register her intended marriage with a male partner under the MO. The Registrar of Marriages maintained that, for the purpose of marriage, the sex of a partner referred to the biological sex by birth. The case was dismissed by the Court of First Instance in October 2010 and the Court of Appeal in November 2011.
Ends/Monday, May 13, 2013
Issued at HKT 20:16
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