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Hong Kong's highest court on Wednesday granted a British bad the right to live and work in the mega-city, a decision that is set to land and end a long court battle.
The Court of Final Appeal The former British colony, which returned to Chinese custody in 1997, was examining the case of a Briton deprived of a marital visa because she is in a relationship with a woman.
In this high place of finance, the largest international banks had put their weight in the balance to defend it in the name of the necessities of recruitment.
The applicant, identified only under the letters "QT", arrived in Hong Kong in 2011 after entering into a civil partnership with "SS" in Great Britain. The latter had gone to Hong Kong to take up a new job.
Hong Kong does not recognize gay marriage or same-bad unions and QT was unable to obtain a dependent visa, which allows work, only a tourist visa.
She had been successful in September at the Court of Appeal but the government had challenged the judgment.
Visas granted to people who come to work in Hong Kong are because "he or she has the talent or the skills deemed necessary or desirable, that person may be heterobadual or gay, "said the Final Court of Appeal.
" The ability to bring in dependents is an important factor for those who are in the process of decide whether or not to go to Hong Kong, "the court continued, saying it was" counterproductive "to limit this right to heterobaduals.
The highest court renders its first decision in favor of the rights of same-bad couples, said QT lawyer Michael Vidler
– "Citizen of the Second Zone" –
"We hope that it will pave the way for change "and the recognition of gay marriage, he added.
Twelve major international financial institutions including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, had flown to QT's rescue, arguing that a "diversified" recruiting policy was vital to attract the best talent.
In a statement issued by his lawyer, QT stated that he felt "joy" in the face of this judgment, as well as "knowing that I a little bit helped to advance the rights of LGBTI people in Hong Kong. "
She accused the government of treating her" like thousands of other bads and gays as a second-clbad citizen because of my badual orientation ".
For the David Pannick said at the hearing that "marriage creates a status" that alone justifies differential treatment for heterobadual and homobadual couples.
In 2017, when the Constitutional Court of neighboring Taiwan rendered a favorable ruling on same-bad marriage, gay activists in Hong Kong denounced the lack of progress on equality issues.
In Hong Kong, homobaduality was only decriminalized 1991.
Open and cosmopolitan city where a gay pride attracts thousands of people each year, the semi-autonomous region is also a haven for conservative movements denouncing the slow progress of the LGBT cause.
Conservative pressure, public libraries recently put LGBT-themed children's books out of sight, available only on demand.
But there are some signs of change. According to a study published Tuesday by the public law center of the University of Hong Kong, 50.4% of Hong Kong people said they were in favor of same-bad marriage in 2017, compared with 38% in 2013.
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