(6 Feb 2023)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hong Kong - 6 February 2023
1. Transgender activist, Henry Edward Tse, walking out of Court of Final Appeal after receiving court ruling
2. Tse holding up a piece of paper in a traditional Chinese calligraphy format with characters reading 'Won the case'
3. Pan from journalists to Tse
4. SOUNDBITE (English), Henry Edward Tse, transgender activist:
"I welcome to judgement of the Court of Final Appeal. The lawsuit’s favourable outcome would solve the burning issue I encountered due to processing a wrong ID. Much like myself, many trans folks in Hong Kong, especially my friends who are transmen, have been longing for today's final victory for years. We have been dreaming that, one day, we will no longer be outed by our ID cards. We will not be refused to enter Hong Kong because of the ID. We will have the basic right to enter heterosexual marriages and to start a family like everyone else in Hong Kong. And we can finally live a dignified life in our home.”
5. Tilt up of Tse
6. SOUNDBITE (English), Henry Edward Tse, transgender activist:
“Simple things like going to a public bathroom is impossible for me because I can't go to a male bathroom and it would be considered a crime of loitering if I use the female bathroom. So now I have the male ID card, it will be a lot easier for me to access gender segregated spaces, and I can use the gym and if I go to visit my friend in a residential building, I wouldn't be questioned and humiliated by being outed by my ID, that is incongruent to who I am.”
7. Pan from journalists to Tse
8. Various exterior of Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal
9. Wide pan of court entrance
STORYLINE:
Hong Kong’s top court ruled on Monday that undergoing full sex reassignment surgery should not be a prerequisite for transgender people to change their gender on their identity cards.
The ruling was in favour of transgender activist, Henry Edward Tse and a person identified as Q, who appealed to the court last month over the government’s refusal to change the gender entry on their ID cards based on their decision not to have a full sex reassignment surgery.
Tse and Q were born as biological females but identify themselves as males.
They have had their breasts removed, received hormonal treatments and lived their lives as males with professional support and guidance as well as psychiatric treatment.
Henry Edward Tse welcomed the court judgement.
"Much like myself, many trans folks in Hong Kong, especially my friends who are transmen, have been longing for today's final victory for years. We have been dreaming that, one day, we will no longer be outed by our ID cards," he said as he left court.
The judgment by the Court of Final Appeal will have a far-reaching impact on the LGBTQ community, especially because many of its transgender members consider having the operation unnecessary and risky.
The two went to court because existing government policy only allows biological females to change their official gender on their ID cards if they have removed their uteruses and ovaries and constructed male genitalia.
Only those who cannot undergo the surgical procedures due to medical reasons can be exempted.
Both the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal rejected the applicants’ application.
In a judgment made public Monday, the Court of Final Appeal ruled that the government's policy was “disproportionate in its encroachment” upon the rights of the two to gender identity and physical integrity.
AP Video shot by Alice Fung
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