Transgender Hero
Recipient
The Community Hero is supported by our Community Partner APTN
Henry Tse
Hong Kong
As a transman who isn’t legally recognised, I use myself as a vehicle to push Hong Kong to enact gender recognition legislation with no sterilisation requirement. A key component of my work is strategic litigation – In 2017, I launched a lawsuit to challenge the current Hong Kong ID policy that coerces transpeople to undergo ‘full sex-reassignment surgery’ for gender marker amendment on the ID card.
After losing twice, the Court of Final Appeal ruled unanimously in my favour in February 2023, declaring full sex reassignment requirement a violation of my privacy rights. However, after this landmark ruling, the Hong Kong government continued to delay the judgement enforcement, which led me to file another judicial review lawsuit in March 2024. Two weeks after, Hong Kong finally published the revised policy that no longer has full SRS as a mandatory requirement for gender marker amendment.
To maximise the odds of winning my lawsuit in the last 7 years, and to defend human rights for the wider LGBTI+ community, I’ve worked on numerous projects, focusing on policy research, media campaigns, movement mobilisation, and community support. I also studied LLM (Human Rights) on the Pam Baker Scholarship at the University of Hong Kong.
Brief information about your work
Before founding Transgender Equality Hong Kong (香港跨性別平權協會), I chaired another trans-focused NGO in which I was a main contributor to the largest community research on the local transgender population (with Chinese University of Hong Kong). My work also include report drafting for ICCPR review, engaging District Councillors on LGBT+ issues and such likes.
With Transgender Equality Hong Kong (founded in 2020), I published a high-profile multi-media project ‘Transmen in Hong Kong’ in 2022. Other work includes organisingprotest, HIV+ prevention, running support groups, pro-bono legal work liaison, supporting trans detainees in emergency, regional discussion forums.
In contrast to other local actors in the field, we’re vocal about human rights, we adopt an intersectional approach, we’re knowledgeable in trans-related policies at international levels & have good relationships with key players in the NGO space in Asia and beyond.
We have been featured in Nikkei, Reuters, ABC (Australia), Washington Post, BBC, TIME Magazine, AP news, Pink News, Tatler, South China Morning Post, i-Cable, Ming Pao, Why Not (Chinese online media), the Young Post, Now, TVB, Yahoo, the China File (Italian), Hong Kong Free Press, HK01, AM730, Commercial Radio prime time shows, RTHK, the Collective etc for LGBT+ subjects, especially in relation to transgender rights.
What one achievement you’ve accomplished that you’re most proud of? Why?
Seeing HongKongese transfolks benefit directly from my past 7 years of work, and successfully amending their national ID cards without having gone through ‘full sex reassignment surgeries’. Also seeing my case being quoted by Taiwan’s constitutional court just a few days after the 2023 favourable ruling – that marks a shift of norms for trans rights in the region.
What do you find most challenging about your work? Why?
As an activist who works under increasing surveillance and clampdowns on dissidents like us, I’ve been faced with various challenges when striving to advance LGBTIQA+ equality. Adverse political landscape, financial restrictions, the lack of support for impact work, are some of the biggest obstacles I face.
What do you do to recharge your battery?
Meeting movement leaders, change makers, allies outside of my domain and picking their brains – that makes me understand that there are good people out there and I am not alone in this fight.
What is your vulnerability and how do you overcome it?
As I was fighting my lawsuits for the past 7 years, there have been systemic oppositions, attacks, online bullying, disinformation about my work from differentparties, including local LGBT+ and trans NGOs financed by a Hong Kong based women’s fund. This was a major reason why I founded Transgender Equality Hong Kong because I needed the protection and support to win the lawsuits.
I’ve been fortunate that I’ve made supportive allies, many of whom from abroad. For example, when the new HKID policy was announced in April 2024, there was a huge wave of disinformation (amplified by a number of mainstream/international media outlets) from particular groups and people were sending vile messages to TEHK and I. ILGA Asia, during that time, issued a public statement to support us in that vulnerable situation, I am forever thankful for their allyship.
You have been nominated for the Transgender Hero category. What was your reaction and please, tell us why?
I am glad that my contribution to the movement is seen, when a part of my advocacy can be quite technical and not the perfect feeder for social media.
As Transgender Equality Hong Kong and I continue to expand transgender and LGBT+ rights for our community through impact work, I hope this opportunity will open doors, especially when funding opportunities and activism landscape can be unreceptive, or even hostile for us.
What is a warm/hopeful message that you would like to share with the communities in the Asia Pacific?
To my friends in the Asia Pacific, I would like to share this quote of Martin Luther King Jr with you. It says, ‘we shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.’
I hope my activism has given people hope, possibly as an embodiment of the aforementioned quote from MLK.
