HK's highest court hears transsexual marriage case  

香港终审法院开审首例变性人争取婚权案

据台湾“中央社”消息，香港终审法院今天开审据称是本地首例变性人争取合法婚权案，预计审判将持续两天。

Ecns - Hong Kong's highest court on Monday began hearing the final appeal of a transsexual woman who is seeking to marry her boyfriend, according to a Taiwan news agency. The hearing will last two days.

The transsexual woman lost her case twice after she was denied marriage registration by the city's Registrar of Marriages. Five judges heard Monday's hearing at Hong Kong's court of final appeal.

In the earlier lawsuits, some judges refused her appeal on the grounds that transsexual women cannot have children, and the woman's counsel said Monday that many couples suffering from infertility problems have the right to marry. His client's re-assignment surgery was done at a public hospital and was government-subsidized. Now she is "medically, psychologically and socially" a woman, he added.

According to Hong Kong's marriage law, marriage is only allowed between couples who were of the opposite sex at birth.