HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s top court on Tuesday upheld earlier rulings that favored subsidized housing benefits and equal inheritance rights for same-sex married couples, in a landmark victory for the city's LGBTQ+ community.
The Court of Final Appeal's dismissal of the government's appeals ended some yearslong legal battles over the differential treatment facing same-sex couples married overseas under Hong Kong’s Housing Authority policies and two inheritance laws.
The unanimous decisions are expected to have a far-reaching impact on the lives of same-sex couples, who have traditionally had fewer rights compared to their heterosexual counterparts in the global financial hub.
Chief Justice Andrew Cheung said in his judgement that exclusionary housing policies were argued to be beneficial to opposite-sex married couples because they increase the supply of subsidized housing for them and thereby support the institution of traditional families.
But Cheung said authorities failed to provide evidence showing the potential impact on opposite-sex couples if those policies were relaxed.
“The challenged policies cannot be justified,” he wrote.
On the inheritance laws, judges Roberto Ribeiro and Joseph Fok ruled that the disputed provisions are “discriminatory and unconstitutional" in their written judgement.
Hong Kong does not recognize same-sex marriage, prompting some couples to marry elsewhere.
Currently, the city only recognizes same-sex marriage for certain purposes such as taxation, civil service benefits and dependent visas. Many of the government’s concessions were won through legal challenges, and the city has seen a growing social acceptance toward same-sex marriage.
In September 2023, the top court ruled that the government should provide a framework for recognizing same-sex partnerships. This ruling, along with other successful legal challenges brought by members of the LGBTQ+ community, made Hong Kong the only place in China to grant such recognition for same-sex couples.
In separate judgements handed down in 2020 and 2021, a lower court had ruled that the housing policies involved in Tuesday's cases violated the constitutional right to equality, and that excluding same-sex spouses from inheritance law benefits constituted unlawful discrimination.
The government had challenged these decisions at the Court of Appeal but subsequently lost in October 2023. It then took the cases to the top court.
Nick Infinger, who first launched a judicial review against the Housing Authority in 2018, told reporters that Tuesday's rulings “acknowledged same-sex couples can love each other and deserve to live together."
“This is not only fighting for me and for my partner, but this is fighting for all the same-sex couples in Hong Kong,” he said outside the court building.
But he added he was still “a bit pessimistic” about whether Hong Kong could become like Taiwan and Thailand in legalizing same-sex marriage.
Hong Kong Marriage Equality, a non-governmental organization, said in a statement that the judges' decisions made it clear that discrimination and differential treatment on the grounds of sexual orientation violate human dignity and equality. It called on the government to immediately end the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage.
The top court’s rulings also concluded a long legal journey taken by Henry Li and his late partner, Edgar Ng. After they married in Britain in 2017, Ng bought a subsidized flat as his matrimonial home with Li.
The Housing Authority, however, said Li could not be added as an authorized occupant of the flat in the capacity of Ng's family member because same-sex married partners do not fall within its definition of “spouse." Ng was also concerned that if he died intestate, his proprieties would not be passed to Li, the court heard.
Ng died in 2020 after suffering years of depression.
After the rulings, Li posted a message on his Facebook account, saying that although he has lived in pain in the absence of Ng, he has not given up his husband's aspiration to pursue equality.
“Without you by my side, the arguments of the government and the Housing Authority in the cases seemed to become more cruel, causing me even more distress,” he wrote to Ng in the message. “I hope you can still hear everyone’s recognition of you.”
Nick Infinger, who won a years-long legal battle over the differential treatment facing same-sex couples, holds up a rainbow banner after speaking to media members outside Hong Kong’s top court on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Kanis Leung)
FILE - A participant holds a rainbow flag at the annual Pride Parade in Hong Kong, Nov. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
ATLANTA (AP) — Prosecutors said Monday that the last two defendants in a long-running gang and racketeering trial committed murder on behalf of an Atlanta street gang co-founded by rapper Young Thug.
But defense attorneys said the state slapped together cherry-picked social media posts and song lyrics with unreliable witness testimony to paint a misleading narrative about young men from tough upbringings who tried to escape poverty through music.
It’s now up to a jury to decide whether to convict Shannon Stillwell and Deamonte Kendrick, who raps as Yak Gotti, on gang, murder, drug and gun charges. The original indictment charged 28 people with conspiring to violate Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
The trial for six of those defendants began a year ago. Four of them, including Young Thug, pleaded guilty last month. Stillwell and Kendrick rejected plea deals after weeks of negotiations, and their lawyers chose not to present evidence or witnesses.
The trial has been plagued by problems and delays. Judge Paige Reese Whitaker, who took over the case in July after the original judge was recused, often lost patience with prosecutors.
Kendrick and Stillwell were charged in the 2015 killing of Donovan Thomas Jr., also known as “Big Nut,” in an Atlanta barbershop. Prosecutors say Thomas was in a rival gang. Stillwell was also charged with the 2022 murder of Shymel Drinks in retaliation for the murders of two YSL associates days earlier, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors alleged that Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, co-founded a criminal street gang in 2012 called Young Slime Life, or YSL, which they said was associated with the national Bloods gang. Young Thug's record label is also known as YSL, for Young Stoner Life. Kendrick was featured on two popular songs from the label’s compilation album Slime Language 2, “Take It to Trial” and “Slatty,” and another Young Thug song that prosecutors played during their closing.
Doug Weinstein, Kendrick's defense attorney, said it was wrong for prosecutors to target the defendants — all Black — for their music and lyrics.
Prosecutor Simone Hylton said the case was about “real bodies,” not a “song over a beat.”
"We are targeting gang members who decided to wreak havoc on communities in Fulton County," Hylton said. “And those communities that they violated, those communities were communities of color.”
Prosecutor Christian Adkins said YSL was a violent gang that operated through “deception, intimidation, destruction and death.”
He pointed to social media posts in which he said showed members admittedly killed people in rival gangs and said their clothes and tattoos were “walking billboards” for YSL.
Weinstein and Stillwell's defense attorney, Max Schardt, said prosecutors threw a bunch of separate crimes, many from around a decade ago, into an indictment without showing that they were connected to a criminal enterprise.
"The state has spent the past year with a hammer in their hand banging on a square peg that they call evidence," Schardt said.
But “that square peg does not fit into that round hole,” he said.
Alleged YSL affiliates said during the trial they lied to police to avoid long prison sentences. Schardt theorized one of those witnesses killed Thomas. He framed Stillwell, Kendrick and others as a part of his string of lies to avoid the threat of prison, Schardt said.
But Hylton said that witnesses and others lied on the stand when they were in front of the people “they snitched on,” not to the police.
Before he got “sucked up in this targeting of Jeffery Williams,” Weinstein said Kendrick was focused on the rap career that helped him move on from his troubled past after plans to play football at the University of Georgia fell through.
His client wasn’t even in the car used in the drive-by shooting that killed Thomas, Weinstein said. But prosecutors said Kendrick was the one who alerted his counterparts about Thomas' whereabouts before he was murdered.
“He’s just as guilty as the ones who pulled the trigger,” Hylton said.
Schardt said surveillance footage showed Stillwell drove away from Drinks' car before he was shot, and there was no gunshot residue found in Stillwell's vehicle. Hylton said the footage proved Stillwell fled the scene at 90 miles per hour through a red light after shooting at least three rounds into Drinks' Nissan.
Nine people charged in the indictment, including rapper Gunna, accepted plea deals before the trial began. Charges against 12 others remain pending. Prosecutors dropped charges against one defendant after he was convicted of murder in an unrelated case.
Jurors are expected to begin deliberations Tuesday. If they do not reach a verdict Wednesday, they will return after Thanksgiving.
Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Kramon on X: @charlottekramon
Defendant Deamonte Kendrick appears during the rapper Young Thug trial at Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta on Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Fulton County Assistant District Attorney Christian Adkins makes closing arguments during the rapper Young Thug trial at Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta on Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
