Major international finance institutions in Hong Kong made a landmark intervention Wednesday in the case of a gay couple struggling to get their rights recognised by the city’s courts.
The 12 businesses — including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse — say they want to submit evidence to a hearing at the Court of Appeal next week in the case of a British woman refused a spousal visa because she is in a same-sex partnership.
Law firm Davis Polk and Wardwell, representing the companies, said their clients had intervened “to assist the court by giving a more rounded picture of the issues”.
“They all seek to attract and hire top talent from around the world in line with their diversity policies,” the statement added.
Hong Kong does not recognise gay marriage and only decriminalised homosexuality in 1991.
Its immigration law does not explicitly rule out gay couples, but states that only the “spouse” of a person permitted to work in the territory may apply for a dependant visa.
Known to the court only as “QT”, the woman at the centre of the case came to Hong Kong in 2011 after she entered into a civil partnership with a woman known as “SS” in Britain.
SS was moving to Hong Kong for a new job.
But QT was denied a dependant visa and was given instead a visitor visa, which does not allow her to work.
She lost a legal challenge in March last year.
Despite the emergence of some LGBT-supporting initiatives in Hong Kong, conservative groups regularly hit back at the promotion of what they claim is an anti-family agenda.
The government has also been criticised by rights campaigners for a lack of anti-discrimination laws and little progress towards marriage equality.
QT’s lawyer Michael Vidler said her legal team welcomed the unprecedented intervention by the companies, which he said aimed to highlight the practical effect of government policy on major employers.
“It is a landmark move by a substantial proportion of an industry which provides the backbone for Hong Kong’s economic success,” he said.
The court now has to decide whether to accept the submissions.
Even if it refuses, Vidler said the application was “historic”.
“It provides a concrete example of major businesses leading by example in unequivocally standing up for LGBT rights in Hong Kong,” he told AFP.
A Taiwan court ruled in favour of gay marriage last month, galvanising campaigners in the region.
But on the same day in Hong Kong, 27,000 people, including five lawmakers, submitted a petition to the government requesting it appeal a recent court decision to grant welfare benefits to a gay civil servant and his husband.
When HSBC — which is not on the list of court interveners — displayed a pair of rainbow-painted lions outside its office in Hong Kong in December to show of support for the city’s LGBT community, anti-gay campaigners slammed it as “disgusting”.
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