Transsexuals were previously banned from marrying even post-op and changing their identification documents because Hong Kong does not allow trans people to change their birth certificates.
Those supporting the ban say that allowing trans people to get married would be like legalising gay marriage, which is a controversial issue in Hong Kong. However, after a lengthy legal battle, a transwoman has today won her right to marry her boyfriend.
See BBC article from a few hours ago:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-22506472Details of the article:
Hong Kong court supports transsexual right to wed
A Hong Kong transsexual has won the right to marry her boyfriend, following an appeal to Hong Kong's top court.
The Court of Final Appeal ruled that Hong Kong's current law, which barred the transsexual woman from marrying her male partner, is unconstitutional.
The woman, identified only as W, underwent gender change surgery at a public hospital a few years ago.
Hong Kong's marriage registry had refused her request because her birth certificate still classes her as male.
"The right to marry guaranteed by our constitution extends to the right of a post-operative transsexual to marry in the reassigned capacity," the majority ruling, co-written by Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma and Permanent Judge Robert Ribeiro, said.
"In present-day multi-cultural Hong Kong where people profess many different religious faiths or none at all... procreation is no longer (if it ever was) regarded as essential to marriage," it added.
The ruling said that references to "woman" and "female" in Hong Kong's marriage law should include post-operative male to female transsexuals.
