Transgender marriage legal by July even if government misses deadline

Marriages involving transgender people will be recognised as legal from July - whether or not the government passes the marriage amendment bill by then.

That's what officials told the Legislative Council yesterday after coming under fire for moving too slowly on the matter.

The government was set a deadline of July this year to amend the law to recognise such marriages following a landmark case in May last year, when the Court of Final Appeal granted a transgender person known as W the right to marry her male fiance.

Since then the government has been criticised for dragging its feet, and with little more than a month to go, some fear it will struggle to meet the deadline.

People Power lawmaker Raymond Chan Chi-chuen told a meeting of the Bills Committee on Marriage (Amendment) Bill yesterday that the government's slowness to act had given lawmakers too little time to discuss the bill.

He said that while the Court of Final Appeal issued its ruling in May last year, the first reading of the bill had not taken place until March this year.

"The government is forcing lawmakers to finish discussing the bill within just three months. The government is showing disrespect to the court by procrastinating," Chan said.