W V registrar of marriages: From transsexual marriage to same-sex marriage?

In W v Registrar of Marriages, the Court of First Instance declined to allow a post-operative male-to-female transsexual to marry as a woman, citing as reasons the lack of a judicial license and of a societal consensus to alter the meanings of “man” and “woman” which would have profound ramifications including the possibility of same-sex marriage. In light of the evolving jurisprudence over legal recognition of post-operative transsexuals under international law and in overseas jurisdictions, this article seeks to shed some light on the purported conceptual links between allowing transsexuals to marry in their new sex and removing the sex requirement of marriage altogether. No matter whether the logical progression will materialise, society faces another question as to why consensus matters. Copyright © 2010 by Sweet & Maxwell Asia; Karen Lee Man Yee.