研究表明香港市民雖較少支持同性婚姻，但多數支持同性伴侶權利 (Research Shows a Majority of People in Hong Kong Support Gay and Lesbian Couples’ Rights, Not Necessarily Marriage)

Chinese Abstract:: 在香港，關於同性伴侶權利的討論往往集中於同性婚姻這個話題。然而，在婚姻以外，政府其實還可以用別的方式來授予同性伴侶權利。世界上許多其他國家或司法管轄區的政府雖然沒有使同性婚姻合法化，但都有用其他方式保障同性伴侶權利。有些地方的政府為同性伴侶提供了已婚異性伴侶所享有的某些權利，包括醫院探訪權、財產繼承權、死亡事故訴訟權等等；而另外一些地方的政府則制定了各種政策，使同性伴侶雖然没有婚姻的名分，但卻擁有已婚異性伴侶的所有權利。這些妥協而來的同性伴侶制度有著各種不同的名稱，例如「註冊伴侶關係」、「民事結合」和「同居伴侶關係」。 有見及此，我們進行了一項有關香港市民對同性伴侶各種權利的態度的意見調查。這項調查正正涵蓋了婚姻以及其他伴侶權利。調查發現，雖然只有27％的市民完全同意准許同性伴侶結婚和12％的人表示比較支持同性婚姻，但當我們問及婚姻以外的伴侶權利時，市民的意見便變得顯著不同： 多達74％的市民認為同性伴侶至少應該擁有異性夫婦所享有的某些權利。在此簡報中，我們會先介紹此次調查的背景及調查結果，然後就會探討這項研究對公共政策的啟示。English Abstract: Discussions in Hong Kong about same-sex couples’ rights often focus on the issue of same-sex marriage. However, marriage is not the only way the government could extend rights to same-sex couples. In other parts of the world, governments have conferred rights upon gay and lesbian couples without legalising same-sex marriage. Some governments have developed programs that grant same-sex couples a subset of the rights that married heterosexual couples enjoy, for example the right to hospital visitation, the right to inheritance, and the right to sue in cases of fatal accidents. Other governments have developed programs that give same-sex couples access to all the rights that married heterosexual couples have, without using the word “marriage”. These compromise legal solutions have been given a variety of different names, such as “registered domestic partnerships,” “civil unions,” and “civil partnerships.”We conducted a public opinion survey to investigate Hong Kong people’s attitudes towards granting same-sex couples a variety of rights, including but not limited to the right to marry. We found that only 27% of the public completely agreed that same-sex couples should be permitted to marry, and 12% said that they somewhat agreed. However, when we asked about rights more generally, our findings were substantially different: 74% of the public supported granting same-sex couples either all or some of the rights that are accorded to heterosexual couples.This briefing paper proceeds in two steps. We first provide background on our survey and present our findings. Afterwards, we explore the public policy implications of our research.