The excitement over the Court of Final Appeal’s ruling to allow a male-turned-female transsexual to marry a (hopefully aware) male continues. The victor in the case proclaims the judgment to be the will of God and says that she looks forward to getting married in a church. This obviously calls for a comment from the Society of Truth and Light, who predictably view the idea with some distaste. The South China Morning Post goes on to ask the government’s Secretary for Security what he thinks, only to get an even more predictable pile of cluelessness.
(Bright and alert people will at this moment jump up to ask what the government minister in charge of the police, firefighters, prisons, customs and immigration has to do with this. Simple answer: the Immigration Department registers marriages, therefore they – rather than, say, the Home Affairs Bureau or Justice – must be experts in policymaking and other philosophizing on family issues.)
Any squeamishness we might feel when reading phrases like ‘post-operative’ goes out the window when confronted with the Society of Truth and Light, who are surely uglier and more grotesque than anything consenting adults get up to behind closed doors. It would be worth legalizing marriage between humans and goats to see these people getting worked up.
Meanwhile, a local religious group takes out full-page ads in newspapers warning against weird stuff not involving a man plus a woman plus production of progeny…
Casual bystanders flicking through the pages might assume that this is the work of some evangelical fundamentalist creationist types of a Truth and Light persuasion, enjoying a quick rant before planning their next trip to the Biblically accurate Noah’s Ark at Ma Wan. But they would be wrong. It is from the local Catholic Church’s Diocesan Pastoral Commission for Marriage and the Family, which was one of then-Cardinal John Wu’s 10 favourite suggestions out of a modest 177 back in 2002. They agonize over such conundrums as whether unmarried parents should have paternity leave, so you don’t have to.
Anyway – the cosmic bit: they sent out the request for subscriptions for the newspaper ad one month ago. So they couldn’t have known the Court of Final Appeal was going to deliver its trendy, liberal, worldly decision on Monday, May 13. Which makes you wonder whether some divine intervention took place and whether the transsexual is perhaps being a bit presumptuous in claiming the support of the Almighty. On a slightly less-cosmic note, the ad was specifically planned to mark today – the International Day of Families. Contrary to the less-than tolerant spirit of the Catholics’ ad, the theme this year is ‘advancing social integration’. They say God moves in mysterious ways; maybe he’s just hopelessly indecisive.
The sanctity of marriage. Let’s ask the married people. Does marriage seem like a gift from God to you?
More like the sanctimony of marriage.
Lai Tung Kwok the Secretary for Security, shouldn’t be let out on his own. The implication in his statement about women being responsible for their own rape by drinking alcohol is a sacking offence all over the non-Muslim world. But no one will notice in Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong Preventative Lobotomy List is out. No surprises. James Tien is no 1 of course.
No to gay marriage, but yes to gay concubinage. No to marriage in general, actually. What’s the point?
Lower tax liabilities?
Yeah, that and sometime some spouse health insurance benefits.
Other than that, what has marriage ever done for us?
If you are a couple in a gay marriage filling in your tax form, don’t forget to tickle the box for joint or individual assessment.
Bigger housing allowance?
Mother in Law jokes ?
Well, if she identifies as a woman and her partner doesn’t care. who am I to worry? I came across a new one a few months ago, a girl who was living with a girl who was biologically female, hadn’t had an operation and intended not to do so, thus wasn’t a transexual, but identified as a man and was considered as being the other girl’s husband (but was still a woman in most senses). Anyway, I agree, the frothing of the society for truth, justice and whatever will be worth the price of admission alone.
The bare faced cheek of the peodophile protecting Catholic Church takes my breath away. Of all groups they have the least moral authority to comment on these issues. When the batchelors of Rome stop exporting child abuse and bring to justice those in their ranks responsible for child-rape, then perhaps we should listen to them.
If any govt legal adviser or policy-maker ( or anyone from the society for light and truth or whatever) cares to do a quick google images search they can instantly turn up thousands of photos of trans-sexuals who are totally female ( and very femininely beautiful) from the waist up, and totally male from the waist down.
And I bet that theses self-same moral legalists happily go to “Simon” cabaret shows when on holiday in Thailand
Either God got his knickers ( or should one say panties depending on God’s true gender ?) in a twist when he created the 1 in 30,000 truly trans-sexual beings, or else He (She?) has a weird sense of humor.
I have no problem with gay marriages. Let them marry and live happily ever-after ( and @ Gin Soaked Boy – I totally agree with you about the total hypocrisy of the Catholic Church re forbidding gay marriage but covering up for pedophile priests ) .
But trans-sexuals are something quite beyond that . They are born that way ! So after puberty should they have to decide whether to have their breasts OR their dicks and balls cut off ? BS !
(Actually, I happen to know personally a trans-sexual who was born a “girl” – the daughter of a close friend. When I met ‘her’ the first time I thought ‘she’ was my friend’s son. This person eventually went through a sex-change op and now is planning to get married to his beautiful girlfriend. The only sad thing is that the couple have decided to move to a new country to live because of the ongoing stigma and legal problems in HK )
According to that muppet, Lai Tung-kwok, it’s all the fault of demon drink:
http://shanghaiist.com/2013/05/15/hong_kong_official_says_women_shoul.php
Re yesterday’s piece – it was pretty gutsy of SFC to take on KS LI – remember he is their landlord…
Also, will ladies in the NT now go through sex-change ops to get their “ding” rights…??
If it’s god’s will, why didn’t he/she or it, just make her a woman in the first place? Logic fail…oh never mind.