Hong Kong’s legislature voted down a bill on Wednesday that would have recognised same-sex partnerships, despite a landmark court ruling and years of LGBTQ rights activism.
The veto marked the first government bill that failed to get a green light from the Legislative Council after Beijing overhauled the city’s electoral system to only have “patriots administering Hong Kong”.
During the second reading of the bill in Legco, 71 of 86 lawmakers voted against it, resulting in the legislation failing to go to a third and final reading.
They said the bill had not managed to gain social consensus, noting that more than 8,000 out of the 10,000 submissions received by Legco expressed disapproval of the legislation.
Peter Siu Ka-fai of the Liberal Party said voting down the bill would not cause a constitutional crisis.
“We are not rubber stamps. If we must follow whatever the Court of Final Appeal rules, then all Legislative Council members wouldn’t need to engage in any discussion,” he said.
“We, as lawmakers, need to speak for the people.”
Only 14 legislators voted in favour of the bill, including seven who also sit on the government’s top decision-making Executive Council such as Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee and DAB chairman Gary Chan Hak-kan.
Ip, who is also the convenor of Exco, said the bill was the second most closely watched local legislation by foreign countries, after the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, also known as the Article 23 legislation.
“They are concerned about this legislation because they want to know whether Hong Kong’s Legislative Council has diverse voices, and whether it can represent different voices in society,” she said.
Others who voted in favour of the bill included the five lawmakers from the New People’s Party chaired by Ip, as well as Tony Tse Wai-chuen and Paul Tse Wai-chun.
Apart from Legco President Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen, who typically abstains from voting to maintain impartiality, Doreen Kong Yuk-foon refrained from casting a vote.
The bill was the government’s answer to the 2023 ruling from the Court of Final Appeal, which gave authorities two years to draw up laws setting out “core rights” of same-sex couples.
The government earlier said the court ruling would remain valid in principle even if Legco did not pass the bill, adding that it would seek legal advice if necessary and make appropriate arrangements in light of actual circumstances.
Under the bill, couples who have a valid same-sex marriage, partnership or civil union registered in a jurisdiction outside Hong Kong could have their relationship recognised under the proposed registration mechanism.
Both individuals must be adults, with at least one of them being a Hong Kong resident.
The recognised same-sex couples will be granted some rights related to medical matters, such as hospital visits and the ability to access their partner’s health records, as well as those relating to after-death arrangements and organ transplants.
In 2023, the Court of Final Appeal ruled the government had violated the city’s Bill of Rights by failing to provide some form of legal recognition, such as civil partnerships, for same-sex couples.
