Transsexual marriage ruling opens door to questions of inheritance

A new twist could be thrown into the controversy over male-line inheritance rights in the New Territories by the court ruling allowing a transsexual to marry.

This is just one area likely to be affected by the new definition of "woman" to cover male-to- female transsexuals, legal experts said yesterday.

Others include matrimonial rights and sex offences.

Dr Karen Lee Man-yee, an assistant professor teaching constitutional law at Shue Yan University, said one question was whether an indigenous man who became a woman would lose his inheritance rights or whether a woman who became a man would gain them.

"For matrimonial matters, if a male-to-female transsexual has married and had children before she has a sex-change operation, should her duty as a 'father' continue after the operation?" Lee asked.

"Also, only women can be victims of rape under Hong Kong law. So does the identity of a victim extend to transsexual from now."