香港变性女子赢得结婚权利

Hong Kong's top court handed down a groundbreaking ruling to allow a transgender woman to marry her boyfriend.

香港终审法院做出了一项史无前例的裁决，允许一名变性女子嫁给她的男友。

On Monday, the city's court of final appeal said that being transgender--someone whose physical and sexual characteristics may not match their gender identity--shouldn't stop someone from getting wed. The appellant, identified in court documents as 'W,' is a woman in her 30s who underwent sex-reassignment surgery in Hong Kong in 2008.

周一，香港终审法院说，变性不该成为阻止一个人结婚的理由。所谓“变性”是指，一个人的生理特征和性特征可能与其性别认同不一致。此案中的上诉人在法庭文件中被称为“W”，是一名30多岁的女子，2008年在香港做了变性手术。

In its 4-1 ruling, the court said it was necessary to protect the rights of transgender people. 'The greatest and most urgent need for constitutional protection is apt to be found among those who form a minority, especially a misunderstood minority,' the judgment ran.

香港终审法院以4票赞成、1票反对做出这项裁决。法院说有必要保护跨性别人士的权利。裁决说，那些少数人群总是最需要宪法保护，尤其是其中被误解的少数。

Furthermore, in defining marriage, the court said, it made no sense to 'adopt criteria which are fixed at the time of the relevant person's birth and regarded as immutable,' the judges wrote. To do so, they said, would be to adopt a 'blinkered view.'

此外，法院的法官认为，在对婚姻进行定义时，固守相关人出生时确定的标准并视其为一成不变是毫无道理的。法官说，如果他们这么做等于是抱着“狭隘的观点”。

Gay-rights advocates cheered the decision. 'It's quite absurd that Hong Kong has maintained an obsolete position for so long,' said Law Yuk-kai, who heads the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor. According to documents submitted to the court, postoperative transgender people are already able to marry in their acquired gender in Chinese mainland, India, Singapore, Japan and South Korea, among other countries in the region.

同性恋权利倡导者对这一裁决拍手称快。香港人权监察(Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor)总干事罗沃启说，香港（在这一问题上）长期以来持过时立场非常荒谬。提交至法院的文件显示，做过手术的变性人能够以手术后的性别在中国内地、印度、新加坡、日本和韩国等亚洲多个国家结婚。

In Hong Kong, prior to filing her case, 'W' had already been allowed to carry a passport and identity card identifying her as a woman. She had also been required to use women's facilities in public toilets and sports grounds. However, when she applied to the Registrar of Marriages to marry her boyfriend in 2008, she was denied permission because her birth certificate described her as male.

在将案子提交至法院前，W在香港已经被允许携带性别显示为“女”的护照和身份证。她也需在公共厕所和运动场所使用女性设施。然而，当她在2008年向婚姻登记处申请嫁给她的男友时遭到拒绝，因为她的出生证明上性别为“男”。

The court's Monday ruling said that in Hong Kong, as well as in many developed nations, there have 'clearly been far-reaching changes to the nature of marriage as a social institution.' The city doesn't currently recognize same-sex marriage, but Waiwai Yeo of the Women Coalition of Hong Kong, which represents lesbian, bisexual and transgender women, said that this week's ruling gave her some hope.

香港终审法院在周一做出的裁决说，在香港，以及在很多发达国家，婚姻作为一种社会制度，其本质显然已经发生了具有深远影响的改变。香港目前还不认可同性婚姻，但是香港女同盟会(Women Coalition of Hong Kong)的杨炜炜说，法院本周做出的裁决给了她一丝希望。香港女同盟会代表女同性恋、双性恋和变性妇女的权益。

According to Ms. Yeo, there are about 200 people who have undergone sex-reassignment surgery in Hong Kong. 'But this figure can't represent the real number of people having surgery,' says Ms. Yeo, given that some seek the treatment overseas, such as in Thailand, in part out of social stigma attached to the procedure.

杨炜炜说，在香港大约有200人做过变性手术。但她说这一数字不能代表实际做过变性手术的人的数量，因为一些人选择在泰国等海外做手术。部分原因是社会对变性手术存在负面看法。

Hong Kong's first documented case of sex reassignment took place in 1981. According to figures submitted to the court, from 2007 to 2009, there were 86 patients in the city diagnosed with what physicians term gender identity disorder.

香港首例记录在案的变性手术是在1981年进行的。据向法院提交的数字显示，从2007年到2009年，香港有86名患者被确诊为存在性别认同障碍。