CONNIE CHAN WAI-MAN expects to hold a big wedding next year. She and her partner plan to fly friends and family to either Montreal or Toronto to witness their nuptials, which will put a serious dent in their bank accounts. But they have little choice.
Chan and her partner are lesbians, and Canada is one of the few countries which recognise same-sex unions. Britain has now joined the list as its Civil Partnerships Act came into force this week, allowing gay couples such as Elton John and David Furnish to register their relationships. But Hong Kong residents won't be enjoying similar rights anytime soon. Despite its cosmopolitan veneer and the touting of its world city status, Hong Kong lags much of the developed world in terms of gay rights.
'Many people in my community dearly wish to marry their partners,' says Chan, referring to the lesbians she got to know as head of the Women's Coalition of Hong Kong, a group fighting for equal rights for women of all sexual orientations. A coalition survey last month found more than 70 per cent of 693 women polled wanted a legal union with their partners.
Just as with straight couples, a formal bond seeks social acknowledgement. 'I'd want to let my family and friends know that, yes, she's the one - so that they wouldn't think they are wasting their time and emotions on just a fleeting girlfriend,' says KK, an executive who declines to reveal her full name or that of her partner.
Legalisation also addresses practical needs and affords a degree of protection for same-sex partners, for example, in rights to shared property.
Such problems were underscored when Chan and her partner were making funeral arrangements for the latter's mother, who died last month. 'We discovered that in order to be buried together you need a marriage certificate,' says Chan. 'We just panicked. What would happen if something were to happen to us suddenly? Would our family be able to place our urns together, for example?'