Hong Kong court rules trans people must undergo invasive surgery to change legal gender

Trans people in Hong Kong cannot have their gender officially recognised on identity documents unless they undergo gender-affirming surgery, a court has ruled.

The Hong Kong Court of Appeal on Wednesday (26 January) rejected an appeal filed by Henry Tse and a person only identified as Q. The pair had filed a challenge against a High Court judgement in February 2019 which affirmed the government’s current policy that trans people can only change their gender on ID cards if they undergo full gender-affirmation surgery.

Both Tse and Q have British passports which list their gender as male. They have also both had top surgery, but neither has had full gender-affirmation surgery.

But Hong Kong’s current policy would require them, as trans people, to undergo surgical procedures which would include removal of their internal reproductive organs and the construction of “some form of a penis”, Hong Kong Free Press reported.

According to the judgment, Q was concerned about the risks that such an invasive procedure might have on him.

But the Court of Appeal said that authorities must have a “clear, definite, consistent and objective yardstick” in determining a person’s gender identity. As such, the judges said surgery would give a trans individual “clear and irreversible resemblance closest to the preferred sex”.