Trans women have right to use women’s bathrooms, rules Hong Kong judge
Hong Kong judge rules that trans women should have the right to use women’s bathrooms. (Getty)
Hong Kong judge rules that trans women should have the right to use women’s bathrooms. (Getty)
Trans women have the right to use women’s bathrooms, a Hong Kong court has ruled.
On Wednesday (23 July), Judge Russell Coleman struck down the two provisions that made it criminal for trans people to go into public toilets that align with their gender identity.
Coleman suspended the ruling for 12 months to allow the government to “consider whether it wishes to implement a way to deal with the contravention”.
In an email response to Reuters, the Environment and Ecology Bureau said the government will carefully study the judgement and consult the Department of Justice on the follow-up.
Coleman wrote in his judgement: “This is a matter of the line-drawing, which seems to me to be a question for the government or legislature to address.”
The legal challenge was launched by a trans man, identified only as K, who aimed to amend the Public Conveniences (Conduct and Behaviour) Regulations to allow individuals undergoing Real Life Experience (RLE) treatment under medical supervision to use public toilets that align with their gender identity.
The ruling follows Hong Kong’s change in policy to no longer require trans people to undergo full gender-affirmation surgery before being allowed to change gender markers on their IDs.
The former rules required procedures which would include the removal of internal reproductive organs and require the construction of a penis or “some form of a penis” for female-to-male transition, and the removal of the penis and testes and the construction of a vagina for male-to-female transition.
Under the new policy, unveiled by authorities in the special administrative region of China on 3 April, trans people do not need to undergo this level of medical procedure to apply for a gender marker change.
However, the revised requirements state that transgender men must undergo top surgery while trans women must have bottom surgery, while trans people will have to undergo hormone replacement therapy for at least two years before being able to apply for a change to their ID card.
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