Gay advocates Roddy Shaw and his partner Nelson Ng, who were married in Toronto, are now fighting for the rights of a Canadian same-sex couple to live and work in Hong Kong.

By Asian Pacific News Service

A Canadian gay couple is at the centre of a homosexual storm in Hong Kong as the controversy over same-sex marriages sanctioned by the West triggers legal dilemmas and protests across Asia

Roddy Shaw & his partner Nelson Ng

The pivotal challenge in Hong Kong, which is being closely monitored by its conservative master in Beijing revolves around the question - if a couple is married legally under the laws of their home country, can immigration authorities deny them the usual rights given to dependent spouses simply because of their sexual orientation

Gay rights activists in Hong Kong this month are seeking to challenge a longstanding immigration policy by requesting a Hong Kong court to recognise the legal status of a same-sex union performed in Canada.

Roddy Shaw, the veteran leader of Civil Rights for Sexual Diversities in Hong Kong , said that his group will take up the cudgels for a gay Canadian couple, one of whom has an employment visa for Hong Kong while the other has been denied a dependent's visa, on the basis that gay marriages are not recognised in the former British colony.

The couple is in Hong Kong and the 'spouse' is on a tourist visa which runs out soon, Shaw said.

He refused to release the names of the couple. Same-sex unions can be performed legally in two Canadian provinces, British Columbia and Ontario.

Under Hong Kong laws, same-sex marriage is not recognised.

The challenge being brought by activists in Hong Kong may end up being a test case that will be closely watched by both gay marriage advocates and immigration authorities in many of the more conservative Asian countries.

"If the couples are married in the home jurisdiction, they should all be granted the same legal status,'' Shaw said.

Hong Kong Solicitor Paul Tse said the concept in question is complicated and has never been tested before.

"There are two concepts here: only marriage between men and women are recognised in Hong Kong. But Hong Kong also recognises overseas marriage between those who marry legally and lawfully within their home jurisdiction, but it is questionable if the second one can override the first,'' he told Hong Kong media.

The Hong Kong Immigration Department in a statement said that under Hong Kong law, marriage is only recognised as involving the 'voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others'.

China has already announced that it is not prepared to register any marriage between people of the same sex.

Pushing to speed up Hong Kong's confused and slow crawl towards legalizing same sex marriages is Roddy Shaw, a 36-year-old student and human rights activist.

After first embarking on a career path in Information Technology, Shaw switched his focus and obtained a master of law degree in human rights.

Along the way, he became involved with gay community groups, where he met Nelson Ng, a physical therapist with a theology degree.

Last year, the couple obtained a marriage licence from Toronto's city hall and they were married in a United Church on September 16 amidst Canadian and Chinese media.

"The fact that we got married legally in Ontario means that the Hong Kong government has to recognize our marriage, because it is a civil marriage that is required by Hong Kong law to be recognized in Hong Kong, for the different purposes of social policies, tax breaks, inheritances, and all other legal protections. The most immediate effect for us will be the possibility of legal reform in Hong Kong," Shaw said in an interview after tying the knot.

Shaw said the marriage is a commitment and also a statement to the world and 'our friends and family that we intend to be together.'

"Politically it is particularly important because we see this as a potential precedent to Hong Kong law. If our marriage is recognized, the Hong Kong government may as well consider having their own marriage regime allow same-sex couples."

But the couple has no illusions about the road ahead. Like Canada and the United States, vocal conservatives are expected to provide strong resistance.

Rainbow Action, a homosexual group which fights for same-sex marriage in Hong Kong, is also annoyed that homosexual couples being denied many legal rights that heterosexual couples are entitled to.

For instance, a homosexual cannot be the emergency caller of his or her partner. Their effort at adopting children is also viewed negatively.

Wai Wai, spokesperson of Rainbow Action, said the act by Shaw and his partner in getting married overseas was not effective enough.

It is because the act is only about gaining recognition for getting married overseas, while not every homosexual couple can afford to go to Canada to get married.

She said the fight should focus on the need to have same-sex marriage in Hong Kong.

Rainbow Action have been known for disrupting a Sunday Mass in a Hong Kong cathedral last August to protest against the Catholic stance against same-sex marriage.

"The Catholic Church doesn't understand how hard it is to be a homosexual," she said.

Gay activists estimate that about 10% of the population of Hong Kong identifies itself as Christian, with the majority of churches being either "evangelical if not fundamental".

They say a lot of the social welfare stuff is given to the church, so they really have a lot of power and authority in asking for social policies.

The Church rejects homosexuality because God rejects it, said a spokesman for Hong Kong's Chung Kei Christian Church.

"Marriage system is not just about protecting your rights to lower taxes. It is about reproduction and the passing down of conscience from generation to generation."

The fight for gay rights in Hong Kong has also taken activists to halls of power where groups seeking government support have had meetings and hearing sessions with Frontier legislator Cyd Ho Sau-lan and Democratic Alliance members such as Mak Ho-fung to put pressure for change.

One group called the Tongzhi Culture Society submitted proposals to a sexual orientation group under the Hong Kong Legislative Council and had a hearing session with them.

It proposes three homosexual rights, which include lowering the age of illegal gay sex to below 16, implementing laws against homosexual discrimination and on same-sex marriage and adoption.

But any private member's bill for homosexual rights is doomed to fail because after Hong Kong's return to China, Basic Law Appendix II imposes more limitations on legislative counselors to propose private member bills.

Under the voting system, private member bills are likely to be vetoed even though legislative counselors succeeded in proposing them.

The issue of same sex marriages is also raising the ire in neighbouring Taiwan which goes to the polls soon.

Proposed legislation that would have recognised same-sex couples in Taiwan has been delayed because of 'obstacles', gay activists attribute to a possible backlash in the run-up to the elections.

The proposed law was to have included recognition of same-sex families and access to adoption, as well as abolition of the death penalty.

If the new law is approved by the legislature, Taiwan, an island nation off the coast of mainland China and with a population of 22.5 million, would be the first in Asia to recognise gay and lesbian couples.

In Japan, homosexuality is no longer considered a mental illness as it once was, but many gays still feel pressure to go through with a sham heterosexual marriage.

In Malaysia, homosexuality remains illegal and sodomy is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, but the laws are rarely enforced and gays are mostly left alone if they keep to themselves.

Gay marriage is not under consideration in this predominantly Muslim country which last year urged the United Nations not to issue a resolution recognizing the rights of gays and lesbians, including that to marriage.

Malaysia wants Muslim countries to derail any United Nations vote on sexual human rights in the world organization.

Gay rights activists in the Phillipines say a few unofficial same-sex marriage ceremonies have taken place, but are not recognized by law.

Michael Urbano, a spokesman for the rights group Pro-Gay, said Filipino gays face more pressing problems than seeking a law recognizing same-sex marriages.

"It's a right that gays should enjoy, but we should first face the primary problem of gays - it's discrimination and homophobia," said Urbano, who added that many gays in the Philippines are forced into sham heterosexual marriages due to pressure from their families.

The predominantly Roman Catholic country has also ruled that a family visa cannot be granted to the same-sex spouse of a foreigner working in the country.

The Justice Ministry said the Philippine constitution and the family code do not recognize gay partnerships after it was asked for a ruling by the department of foreign affairs on dealing with same-sex marriages of foreign diplomats and staff of international organizations operating in the country.

The department earlier had revoked a non-immigrant visa given to the same-sex spouse of an American director of the Asian Development Bank, even though the women's partnership is recognized in the United States.

In Australia, Prime Minister John Howard has condemned the country's first law allowing gay couples to adopt.

Howard said the new ruling, made by the government of the Australian Capital Territory last month, showed the dangers of "political correctness".

Howard described himself as a social conservative, saying he was against gay adoption and gay marriage.

"Children ideally should be brought up by a mother and a father who are married," he added.

Howard's comments come after Sydney recently played host to the country's largest street festival - the Lesbian and Gay Mardi Gras.

About 100,000 revellers ignored heavy rain to line the route through the city's gay district and view some 130 floats.

In India, many are watching the lawsuit by a lesbian couple from Tamil Nadu in Seattle.

The couple has filed a lawsuit saying their civil rights in the US are being violated because of their sexual preferences.

Vegavahini Subramaniam and Vaijayanthimala Nagarajan -- known as Vega and Mala -- met through a women's e-mail listing service in 1996.

They were delighted to find out that they hailed from the same community in southern India and were both open lesbians. Two years later, they became romantically involved.

Activists say that gay men and lesbians lack legal protection in all South Asian countries. After independence India adopted the British penal code dating to the 19th century, and few changes have occurred in the intervening years. Section 377 of the code relates to homosexuality: "Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine".

The situation in Pakistan is much worse.

Apart from civil law derived from the British penal code, there is also a religious law calling for up to 100 lashes or death by stoning.

In Sri Lanka, sex between men is punishable by 12 years in jail, while the existence of lesbianism is not even acknowledged in the penal code.

Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal all have similarly repressive laws on homosexuality.

But not all Asian leaders and governments are opposed to gay marriages.

In Cambodia, King Norodom Sihanouk has shown that advancing years are no barrier to an open mind and liberal attitude.

After watching television images of gay marriages in San Francisco, the 81-year-old monarch has decided that single sex weddings should be allowed in Cambodia too. He expressed his views in a hand written message on his website which has proved extremely popular in Cambodia.

The king said that as a "liberal democracy", Cambodia should allow "marriage between man and man... or between woman and woman."

He said he had respect for homosexual and lesbians and said they were as they were because God loved a "wide range of tastes."

Sihanouk, also said that transvestites should be "accepted and well-treated.