Finally I can marry my boyfriend: Transsexual plans wedding after landmark court victory

A transsexual woman who won a landmark court victory allowing her to marry her 'beloved boyfriend' said she is already planning their wedding.

The woman, 37, identified only as W, twice lost her case in court in a bid for the right to marry her boyfriend. The Registrar of Marriages insisted only a person's gender at birth counts for the purposes of marriage. She had had a government-subsidised sex-change operation, and contended that by not recognising her new gender, the government in effect denied her the right to marry anyone - man or woman.

Now the ruling will rewrite the century-old definition of "gender" in Hong Kong.

The Court of Final Appeal, ruling 4-1 on Monday morning, holds that it is “contrary to principle to focus merely on biological features fixed at the time of birth and regarded as immutable”.

The court also noted that in present-day multicultural Hong Kong, the nature of marriage as a social institution had undergone far-reaching changes. It further noted that the importance of procreation as an essential constituent “has much diminished”.

The judgment states that “whether a consensus regarding a transsexual’s right to marry exists among the people of Hong Kong is not a relevant consideration”, because reliance on the absence of a majority consensus as a reason for rejecting a minority’s claim is “inimical in principle to fundamental rights”.