By Jessie Pang HONG KONG (Reuters) -A Hong Kong court ruled on Wednesday in favour of a transgender person who challenged laws that criminalise them for going into public toilets that align with their chosen gender identity. Judge Russell Coleman struck down the two provisions that made it criminal to do so but suspended the ruling […]
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Hong Kong court backs transgender person’s right to use toilets that match chosen gender identity
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By Jessie Pang
HONG KONG (Reuters) -A Hong Kong court ruled on Wednesday in favour of a transgender person who challenged laws that criminalise them for going into public toilets that align with their chosen gender identity.
Judge Russell Coleman struck down the two provisions that made it criminal to do so but suspended the ruling for 12 months to let the government “consider whether it wishes to implement a way to deal with the contravention”.
The Environment and Ecology Bureau said in an email response to Reuters that the government will carefully study the judgment and consult the Department of Justice on the appropriate follow-up action.
“This is a matter of the line-drawing, which seems to me to be a question for the government or legislature to address,” Coleman wrote in his judgment.
He also said the question of where to draw the line between a “female person” and a “male person” is “an answer not appropriately given by the courts, and is more appropriately a matter for legislation”.
The legal challenge was launched by a transgender man, who identifies as K, born as a female and identifies as a man, and who sought to amend the Public Conveniences (Conduct and Behaviour) Regulations to allow individuals undergoing Real Life Experience (RLE) treatment under medical supervision to use public toilets that align with their gender identity.
This is the latest ruling from the city’s judiciary in recent years that recognises the rights of transgender people.
The city’s Court of Final Appeal in February 2023 unanimously sided with appeals launched by transgender activists that barred transgender people from changing their gender on their mandatory ID cards unless they undergo full sex reassignment surgery, saying it violated their rights.
The Hong Kong government last April revised the policy and allowed transgender people who have not completed full sex reassignment surgery to change gender on their ID cards.
(Reporting by Jessie Pang; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Raju Gopalakrishnan)