Transgender activists urge Hong Kong’s Immigration Department to approve ID card sex change requests following landmark court ruling
- Henry Edward Tse, who won legal battle, and four other activists stage protest outside Immigration Department building
- ‘If the government had respected the ruling, they would have granted me the application right away,’ he says
Transgender activists have urged Hong Kong’s Immigration Department to approve applications to change the sex shown on identity cards after authorities suspended the process following a court ruling that reassignment surgery was no longer a prerequisite for the alteration.
Henry Edward Tse, a transgender man who won the legal battle, and four other activists staged a protest in front of the department’s building in Wan Chai on Friday.
“We urge the government to carry out the new policy that allows transgender people who have not completed full reassignment surgery to change their sex on ID cards within three months after the Court of Final Appeal ruling,” he said.
Tse, who had his breasts removed and underwent hormonal treatments, won the landmark case against the commissioner of registration, a role filled by the director of immigration, on February 6.
The department has since suspended all applications to change the sex shown on ID cards, saying it needed to adjust the policy to comply with the ruling.
A government spokesman said the department was still reviewing relevant policies and administrative measures based on the court judgment and would “strive to complete the review within a reasonable period”.
He added authorities would only continue processing ID card applications for individuals who had completed full sex reassignment surgery.
Tse estimated that about 2,000 transgender people would be affected by the suspension.
Transgender victory in Hong Kong ID row, but confusion over rules
“If the government had respected the ruling, they would have granted me the application right away,” he said. “We have real and solid evidence that the government is cherry-picking. They are using the attitude of ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ and every means to block us from full integration into Hong Kong society.”
Tse added that since there was no response from the department since he filed the application in mid-February, he sent a legal letter to the Department of Justice demanding a reason two weeks ago.
On Tuesday, he received a call from the Immigration Department asking him to submit more information.
“I asked them what other documents I needed to submit. I handed in all the necessary documents when I first applied. The officer only told me to submit whatever I have,” Tse said.
But he did not elaborate what actions activists would take if authorities did not adopt the new policy within three months.
Hong Kong transgender man behind legal victory slams inaction over ID card changes
Ryousuke Chau, who was among the activists protesting with Tse, is expecting to receive a new ID card with the sex changed by mid-April.
But his application was postponed due to the court ruling even though he submitted it in January.
“I don’t understand why the government has put me on an emotional roller-coaster. This is not fair to transgender people,” Chau, who suffers hearing issues, said in a statement.
Friday is the International Transgender Day of Visibility.
Transgender victory in Hong Kong ID row, but confusion over rules
Three local groups advocating for transgender rights submitted a petition to the government’s interdepartmental working group on recognition, demanding it to “immediately respond to the court order and promptly restart the work on gender recognition legislation”.
The petition, signed by 37 organisations, 15 scholars and 1,100 residents, said Tse’s court battle was a reminder that the government had not done anything to improve the legal status and rights of transgender people in the past 10 years.
In 2013, the Court of Final Appeal ruled in favour of a transgender woman, identified as W, allowing her to marry her boyfriend.
After the ruling, the government established the working group to look into whether legislation and other measures were needed on the issue of gender recognition in the city.
The group finished its first round of public consultations in 2017 but has not yet released its findings.
“The inaction of the group and the legislative bodies over the years [does not only involve] avoiding the enforcement of the court’s ruling [and] delaying the fulfilment of international treaty obligations, but [it also showcases] a strong disregard for the recommendations of the United Nations Human Rights Committee to establish mechanisms,” the petition reads.
