Henry Edward Tse, a 33-year-old transgender man, first launched legal action in 2017 after the commissioner of registration, a role filled by the director of immigration, rejected an application to change his gender from female to male on his Hong Kong ID card.
“After seven years, I can finally change my ID. I can finally breathe a sigh of relief,” he told the Post on Saturday.
“The government finally changed its policy and I can solve the urgent matters in my life related to my identity as a trans man.”
Tse said he planned to throw a party to celebrate the milestone with other transgender men who managed to change their IDs.
The Court of Final Appeal in February last year ruled in favour of Tse and another litigant, saying that authorities’ refusal to allow the wo transgender people to use their preferred gender on their identity cards without undergoing full reassignment surgery had breached their rights.
The ruling, the result of a years-long legal battle, meant the government could no longer impose such surgical procedures – often considered risky by the transgender community – as a precondition for wider gender recognition.
Transgender activists call for approval of Hong Kong ID card sex change requests
Transgender activists call for approval of Hong Kong ID card sex change requests
Despite winning the landmark lawsuit, Tse said he still faced discrimination in the past year as the government had not updated its policy in response to the court ruling until earlier this month.
Without the updated ID, he was unable to change the gender markers on his mainland China travel permit and other documents.
Tse said he was taken to a room for interrogation by immigration staff on a recent trip to Shenzhen due to the gender marker on his travel documents.
“I was kept on my toes as I expected that I would run into problems while crossing the border, but I was still nervous when it actually happened,” he said.
“I thought to myself, I have won the lawsuit over a year ago, why do I still have to go through all of this?”
Tse also filed a separate lawsuit against the government in March for what he said was a discriminatory delay in issuing him his new ID card.
Hong Kong law school ‘may have violated rules’ over transgender bathroom access
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Authorities had declined the change of gender on his card, despite his Court of Final Appeal win last February, as they were yet to update their policies.
The revised criteria was introduced on April 3, more than a year after the city’s top court ruled in Tse’s favour.
He said he would seek monetary compensation for the distress caused by the delay, which could not be forgotten even after changing his card.
“Potentially in the future, if there are similar cases for the LGBTQ community, the government should not delay policy updates like this,” he said.
While Tse said that his new ID could make life easier for him and solve some surface issues, he conceded it was only a small step in the fight for transgender rights.
“The updated policy is not fully trans-inclusive, as measures such as submitting blood test reports for randomised checks still violate our privacy,” he said.
“There are still many hurdles for us, such as marriage. These are all issues we have to confront, which cannot be solved merely by an ID change.”