All around the world, leaps and bounds are being made in the fight for equal rights for the LGBTQ community. After Brazil recently declared transphobia and homophobia illegal in their country, now follows the Hong Kong High Court striking down laws against gay sex.
The South China Morning Post reports that the Hong Kong High Court ruled four laws unconstitutional since it only applied to gay men and not to heterosexuals and lesbians. The interpretation for three other laws were changed.
The four laws invalidated by Justice Thomas Au Hing-cheung were laws against “procuring others to commit homosexual buggery,” “gross indecency with or by a man under 16,” “gross indecency by a man with a man otherwise than in private,” and “procuring gross indecency by a man with a man.”
Meanwhile, bans on “homosexual buggery with or by a man under 16,” “gross indecency by a man with a male mentally incapacitated person,” and “permitting a young person to resort to or be on a premises or vessel for intercourse, prostitution, buggery or homosexual acts” will now also apply to women as well as men.
Before the ruling, “homosexual buggery with or by a man under 16” held both the perpetrator and the boy under 16 liable, as well as carrying a possible life sentence. However, men who have sex with a girl under 16 will only face five years in prison, with the girl not being held criminally liable. With Au’s reinterpretation of the law, the underage boy will no longer be held criminally liable, and the jail time will now be just five years, same as heterosexual people.
The accused for the offence of “gross indecency by a man with a male mentally incapacitated person” has been changed to person, and the term for the victim is now also gender neutral.
The charge of “permitting a young person to resort to or be on a premises or vessel for intercourse, prostitution, buggery or homosexual act” has now also been made gender neutral, with the victim’s ages reduced from 21 to 16.
The road to this decision began in October 2017, when LGBTQ activist Yeung Chu-wing brought the lawsuit against the government. Before this decision, the Hong Kong High Court had decided it was unfair that the legal age for gay male intercourse was 21 while those for heterosexuals was 16. That law was changed in 2014.
So, equal restrictions under the law now in Hong Kong, huh? OK, I can go along with that.
OK, time out.
“Laws Against Gay Sex”” (says the glaring title)
and
“it only applied to gay men and not to heterosexuals and lesbians.’
and
“Meanwhile, bans on “homosexual buggery with or by a man under 16,” “gross indecency by a man with a male mentally incapacitated person,” and “permitting a young person to resort to or be on a premises or vessel for intercourse, prostitution, buggery or homosexual acts” will now also apply to women as well as men.”
I’m sooooooooo open to a discussion of this that makes sense.
What does this mean: “gross indecency with or by a man under 16”? That raping children is OK there?
Gross indecency is not rape. It’s an archaic term used to describe man on man sex not including anal sex.
A person who is 16 years of age isn’t considered to be a child in Hong Kong.