TL;DR
- Hong Kong court ruled in favor of a lesbian couple’s parental recognition
- Their son was born via reciprocal IVF using one woman’s egg and the other’s womb
- Judge Russell Coleman declared current laws impede equal rights
- Legal milestone in a city that doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage
- Could pave the way for wider LGBTQ parental rights in Asia
Landmark Win for Love in Hong Kong
In a groundbreaking legal victory that could reshape family law across Hong Kong, a lesbian couple has finally won the right to be legally recognized as joint parents of their child — a first for the city. The couple, identified only as B and R, welcomed their son in 2021 after undergoing reciprocal in vitro fertilization in South Africa, where they were legally married. The child was conceived with an egg from R, fertilized with donor sperm, and carried to term by B.
Until now, only B’s name appeared on the boy’s birth certificate, erasing R from the legal picture. But that changed when Judge Russell Coleman declared that Hong Kong’s Parent and Child Ordinance “significantly impedes” the boy’s ability to represent his true family ties to the world. In a withering critique of the law’s outdated stance, Coleman ruled that it fails to strike a “reasonable balance” between supposed societal benefits and the rights of affected individuals. “The constitutional challenge is made good,” he wrote, signaling that love — and law — just scored a major win.
While Coleman stopped short of issuing an immediate directive, he made it clear that the couple’s rights had been violated and that remedies must follow. It’s still unclear how many other families might benefit from this ruling, but for Hong Kong’s LGBTQ community, the symbolism is electric: the legal system is finally catching up to the reality of queer families.
Ripple Effects for LGBTQ Families
This isn’t B and R’s first courtroom showdown. Back in 2023, Judge Queeny Au-Yeung ruled that R could be considered a parent “at common law,” even though she didn’t fit the city’s statutory scheme. That judgment leaned on the fact that the couple are fully recognized as the boy’s parents under South Africa law.
Globally, courts have been moving steadily toward recognizing same-sex parents. The European Court of Justice ruled in 2021 that children with two mothers must be recognized as such across EU nations. And earlier this year, Italy’s Constitutional Court greenlit listing both women as parents on a birth certificate despite the country’s harsh stance on IVF and surrogacy.
Hong Kong lawmakers are meanwhile preparing to debate a bill that would allow couples married abroad to register their partnerships locally, gaining rights on medical and after-death matters. But that bill is facing fierce pushback, and its future is uncertain. Coleman’s ruling could add pressure on lawmakers to finally stop dragging their heels — and start recognizing the families that already exist.
This decision is more than a personal victory for B, R, and their son — it’s a legal crack in the wall of discrimination that still surrounds LGBTQ families in Hong Kong. For same-sex couples who dream of having children, recognition isn’t just symbolic. It affects everything from custody and inheritance to medical decisions and travel. Denying that recognition can destabilize families, leaving children in legal limbo and parents vulnerable to bureaucratic cruelty.
Coleman’s decision sends a loud message: queer families are real families, and the law can no longer pretend otherwise. For Hong Kong’s LGBTQ community, still denied the right to marry, this ruling offers a sliver of justice — and a powerful precedent. It proves that even in a system slow to change, love can rewrite the rules.