A US officiant marries 10 same-sex couples in Hong Kong via video chat (video)
Ten same-sex couples from Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous southern Chinese city, celebrated their marriages over the internet to the United States on Tuesday. While Hong Kong does not formally recognize same-sex unions, it does offer certain legal protections for them.
The event, timed to mark Pride Month, saw a registered officiant from Utah making the marriages official. Unlike most states, Utah's digital application process, which does not require couples to appear in person, has become popular for online weddings since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Family members gathered in a hotel wedding hall in Hong Kong’s Kowloon district as the couples exchanged rings and toasted their unions.
“I hope one day that everybody would accept the fact that love is not just between a man and a woman. It’s between two people who love each other,” said Lucas Peng, a 66-year-old Singaporean businessperson living in Hong Kong. “It’s just two humans who love each other. That’s the key. That’s the important part. And to be able to publicly declare our love for each other today is a very important step for us, definitely.”
Wedding organizer Kurt Tung expressed hope that the event would send a positive message to the public. “In Hong Kong, there’s not yet a way to go to a marriage registry to get married, but there’s still this way we can offer for them to realize their dreams of getting married,” Tung said.
Hong Kong, adhering to cultural and religious traditions, only recognizes marriages between a man and a woman. Taiwan, which is self-governing, is the closest place that issues same-sex marriages. Hong Kong recognizes the legal rights of those couples, though it does not call them marriages and has no laws banning same-sex relationships.
In September, Hong Kong’s top court ruled that the local government should provide a legal framework for recognizing same-sex partnerships, including rights to inheritance, joint custody of children, taxation, spousal visas, and employment benefits.
This ruling followed a challenge by LGBTQ+ rights activist Jimmy Sham, who married his husband in New York in 2013. Sham argued that Hong Kong’s laws violated the constitutional right to equality. This legal victory contrasts with the increasingly conservative political climate in Hong Kong, where directives from Beijing’s authoritarian Communist Party leadership have drawn global criticism for suppressing democratic rights and free speech.
