By Jessie Pang
HONG&nbsp;KONG&nbsp;(Reuters) - A&nbsp;Hong&nbsp;Kong&nbsp;court&nbsp;on Tuesday dismissed a government bid to deny same-sex married&nbsp;couples&nbsp;the right to rent and own public&nbsp;housing&nbsp;saying that it was "discriminatory in nature" and a complete denial of such&nbsp;couples'&nbsp;rights.
The ruling by&nbsp;Hong&nbsp;Kong's&nbsp;Court&nbsp;of Appeal is the latest in a series of legal breakthroughs for&nbsp;gay&nbsp;rights&nbsp;advocates in the global financial hub this year.
The government had challenged two High&nbsp;Court&nbsp;rulings that it was "unconstitutional and unlawful" for the city's&nbsp;housing&nbsp;authority to exclude same-sex&nbsp;couples&nbsp;who married abroad from public&nbsp;housing.
The appeal involved two cases, one in which the authority had declined to consider a permanent resident's application to rent a public flat with his husband, because their marriage in Canada was not recognised in&nbsp;Hong&nbsp;Kong.
The other involved a same-sex couple who were denied joint-ownership of a government-subsidised flat by the authority because their marriage in Britain was not recognised in&nbsp;Hong&nbsp;Kong.
Court&nbsp;of Appeal justices Jeremy Poon, Aarif Barma and Thomas Au said in a written judgment that the authority's treatment of&nbsp;gay&nbsp;married&nbsp;couples&nbsp;was "discriminatory in nature" and they should be afforded&nbsp;equal&nbsp;treatment.
"The differential treatment in the present cases is a more severe form of indirect discrimination than most cases because the criterion is one which same-sex&nbsp;couples&nbsp;can never meet," the judges said in their ruling.
One of the men involved in the second case, Henry Li, welcomed the ruling in a post on Facebook.
Rights&nbsp;group&nbsp;Hong&nbsp;Kong&nbsp;Marriage&nbsp;Equality also welcomed the decision saying it had made clear "that discrimination and unequal&nbsp;treatment on the ground of sexual orientation has no place in public policy decisions".
Hong&nbsp;Kong's top&nbsp;court&nbsp;in September ruled against same-sex marriage but acknowledged the need for same-sex&nbsp;couples&nbsp;"for access to an alternative legal framework in order to meet basic social requirements".
The government was given two years to come up with the framework.
A&nbsp;Hong&nbsp;Kong&nbsp;court&nbsp;in September sided with a married lesbian couple who argued that both women should have parental status over their child born via reciprocal IVF.
Activists in other parts of Asia are watching&nbsp;Hong&nbsp;Kong's&nbsp;courts in the hope that their rulings could influence campaigns for reform elsewhere.
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Jessie Pang; Editing by James Pomfret, Robert Birsel)

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