Hong Kong court upholds 3 rulings granting equal housing, inheritance rights to gay couples

Hong Kong’s top court has upheld three landmark judgments granting equal housing and inheritance rights to same-sex couples, marking another milestone in the LGBTQ community’s fight against discrimination in the city.

The Court of Final Appeal on Tuesday dismissed the government’s appeals seeking to preserve the discriminatory housing policies and intestacy laws, which were declared unconstitutional following three successful judicial challenges.

Litigant Nick Infinger earlier won a challenge over the Housing Authority’s refusal to allow him and his same-sex partner to apply for a public rental flat as a family.

Married couple Henry Li Yik-ho and Edgar Ng Hon-lam, who has died, clinched a victory in another judicial review targeting the authority’s decision to bar same-sex spouses from living together in subsidised flats under the Home Ownership Scheme (HOS).

Li and Ng were also on the winning side in a third challenge over two ordinances that prevented same-sex couples from bequeathing their properties to their surviving partners and introduced an extra hurdle for them to apply for financial support from the deceased’s estate.