Hong Kong turns down gay marriage

Hong Kong turns down gay marriage
The Associated Press
SUNDAY, APRIL 16, 2006

HONG KONG Hong Kong, home to hundreds of thousands of British nationals, has blocked local residents from entering into same-sex civil unions at the British Consulate, a spokeswoman at the consulate said Sunday.

Hong Kong's Home Affairs Bureau told the consulate Tuesday that the Chinese territory would not allow same-sex couples to marry on the mission's premises, the spokeswoman, Vanessa Gould, said.

British law allows British nationals to enter civil unions with non-British nationals of the same gender at British diplomatic offices worldwide, so long as the local government does not object.

Hong Kong, a Britain colony until 1997, is home to more than 200,000 British passport holders and 3.5 million more who are eligible for the British National (Overseas) passport, a travel document that does not grant the right of abode in Britain.

Holders of either document are considered British nationals under the Civil Partnership Act.

But the Hong Kong government "does not consider it appropriate to agree to the registration of civil partnerships of same-sex couples at the British Consulate-General Hong Kong at present," the consular office said on its Web site.

The Hong Kong government made the decision because the government was still in the process of consulting on the need for laws against discrimination against gays, and did not want to be perceived as taking sides while the issue was being discussed, Lily Chen, a Home Affairs Bureau spokeswoman, said.

Roddy Shaw, a gay rights activist, said, "This is a matter of British nationals exercising their rights."

So far Australia, Croatia, South Africa, Venezuela, Belarus, Israel, Switzerland, Vietnam, Colombia, Japan, Turkmenistan, Costa Rica and certain U.S. states have allowed local British diplomatic offices to conduct same-sex civil unions for British subjects.

Homosexuality is not outlawed in Hong Kong. A local court recently ruled in a favor of a challenge against laws that differentiate between gay and heterosexual sex.

The age of consent for heterosexual sex in Hong Kong is 16, while the legal age for "sodomy" is 21. Gay activists say the distinction is discriminatory. The government is appealing the ruling.