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A landmark Hong Kong court decision granting visas to spouses of gay expatriate workers will help LGBT groups press Singapore and Japan to change their policies as global financial centers compete for control business and talents.
The High Court's decision places Asia's leading financial center at the vanguard of the nascent gay rights movement in Asia, where only Taiwan is recognizing same-sex marriage.
Law firms and banks – including Goldman Sachs Group, Credit Suisse Group AG and Nomura Holdings Inc. – applauded the decision after long considering that discrimination against homosexual workers made recruitment difficult.
"Now Hong Kong has a distinct advantage over our competitors," said Raymond Chan, the city's only openly gay legislator, who plans to formally call for a debate on same-sex marriage in the legislature the week before. next. "The business world recognizes the importance of attracting and retaining talent in the competitive global marketplace."
The decision does not influence the status of local homosexual couples in the city, whose government removed children's books dealing with LGBT issues from libraries last month, after receiving complaints from groups opposed to rights homosexuals, according to the newspaper The Standard.
"There are some conservatives in the highest ranks of the Hong Kong government who oppose homosexual rights for religious reasons," said Regina Ip, legislator and member of the highest consultative body in Hong Kong. Carrie Lam, the general manager. of the autonomous territory. "Like the court, young people with a more formal education are more liberal."
Hiring Expats
Ip, 67, stated that he would support Chan's call for debate.
Japan and Singapore do not issue visas to same-sex spouses. For financial companies in Japan, the Hong Kong decision could hinder the hiring of expatriates, especially as Japanese courts or legislators are unlikely to advance quickly.
The party of the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issued a policy document in 2016, in which he stressed that accepting diversity did not mean denying the difference between the sexes and that it was not necessarily favorable to the marriage of homosexuals. .
In Singapore, a law on sodomy of the colonial era is still in effect and last year, the government banned foreigners from attending the annual Pink Dot rally for rights homosexuals.
Support for gay marriage is increasing in Hong Kong, according to a poll released Wednesday by the Center for Comparative and Public Law of the University of Hong Kong. It was found that 50.4% of respondents agreed with same-sex marriage in 2017, compared to 38% in 2013, when the previous survey was conducted.
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