Activist wins partial victory in Hong Kong same-sex marriage appeal

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

57% :Hong Kong Marriage Equality welcomed the ruling, saying the verdict was an "important victory" for same-sex couples.
56% : Same-sex relationships share all the characteristics of intimacy, love, long-term commitment and mutual support with heterosexual marriages, Monaghan said.
52% : The final appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the government has a constitutional duty to provide a legal framework for same-sex relationships to be recognized, setting a two-year timeline for officials to deliver.
50% : "Jimmy Sham's partial victory in court is the reward for his tireless campaigning for equality, and it sends a clear message to the Hong Kong government that its laws on same-sex marriage are in urgent need of reform," Amnesty International's Regional Director for East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Piya Muqit, said in a statement.
49% : "It is now crucial that the government does not delay in implementing this ruling as a first step towards ensuring full equality for [LGBTQ+] people.""Jimmy Sham's marriage is legitimate and should be recognized as such," Muqit said, calling for a comprehensive review of all of Hong Kong's laws, policies and practices that discriminate based on sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status.
48% : In what has been called a 'moment of hope' for LGBTQ+ rights in the city, detained Hong Kong civil rights activist Jimmy Sham has partially won his bid for equal recognition of same-sex marriage in a judicial review case he took all the way to the city's Court of Final Appeal.
32% : But it ruled against Sham's argument that the exclusion of same-sex couples from the institution of marriage was a violation of the right to equality under the Hong Kong Bill of Rights and Basic Law; and that lack of recognition of foreign same-sex marriage violated the right to equality.
30% : She said such discriminatory treatment would likely also engender discrimination against same-sex couples in other areas, including inheritance rights and access to housing, and sent the wrong message to the public.
27% : His lawyer, Karon Monaghan KC, had argued at the hearing in June that it is unconstitutional for the Hong Kong government to eliminate the possibility of same-sex marriage, and that it is unconstitutional not to offer an alternative legal union for same-sex couples.
26% : She argued that the government's rejection of same-sex marriage, and its failure to provide alternatives like civil unions, amounts to discrimination against same-sex couples, sending the "insulting" message that homosexual relationships are inferior to heterosexual ones.

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