Hong Kong High Court abolishes offences criminalizing gay sex

A legal victory for LGBT people in Hong Kong! On Thursday the High Court ruled four criminal offences unconstitutional, repealing them with immediate effect.
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The seven offences in question made homosexual men criminally liable for acts that were legal for heterosexuals, and in some case lesbians. As a representative of the court, Thomas Au Hing-cheung, abolished the criminalization of “procuring others to commit homosexual buggery” and “gross indecency with or by a man under 16”. He also overturned “gross indecency by a man with a man otherwise than in private” and “procuring gross indecency by a man with a man”.

LGBT activist, Yeung Chu-wing, filed a legal suit against the original offences of the high court in 2017. As a result of this lawsuit the court revised their interpretation of three offences, ruling that they must now apply to heterosexuals and lesbians as well to be constitutional. The court agreed that laws targeting gay men are incompatible with basic law.
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