On Sept. 5, Hong Kong's top court ordered the city's government to legally recognize the rights of same-sex couples in a partial victory for LGBTQ+-rights activists, CNN reported.
Five judges from Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal made the ruling, which has followed years of legal battles challenging the government's refusal to let same-sex couples get married or form civil unionseven though homosexuality has been decriminalized there since 1991.
In stopping short of recognizing marriage equality, the court added that the freedom to marry was guaranteed under the city's mini-constitutionbut that it only referred "to heterosexual marriage."
Hong Kong Marriage Equality co-founder Jerome Yau said he is "cautiously optimistic" as the battle for same-sex marriage continues.
The government has two years to comply with the ruling.
Andrew Davis