A Brief Overview of LGBT Rights in Hong Kong:

• Homosexuality not criminalized; Previously, under Brutish colonial rule, male homosexual acts were criminalized with a maximum punishment of life imprisonment. In 1991, the Legislative Council of Hong Kong agreed to decriminalize private, consensual homosexual relations, though they maintained an uneven age of consent for gay men (21, vs. 16 for heterosexual couples), while remaining silent about lesbianism, until 2006.
• Right to change gender on legal documents such as the identity card and passport, but not birth certificate, only after a person has undergone sex reassignment surgery through government sponsored hospital.

Family:

• Same-sex marriage is not legally recognized; In May 2013, the Court of Appeals in Hong Kong ruled that a transgender woman was able to marry her boyfriend ^[1]
  
• Single adults, regardless of sexual preference or gender presentation, are eligible to apply to adopt a child.

Public/Workplace:

• While there are no civil laws protecting LGBT folk from employment discrimination, a court case in 2005  (Leung TC William Roy v. Secretary for Justice), extended the definition of the 1991 Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance to include sexual orientation (gender expression unclear). This however, only applies to jobs in the public sector and not the private sector.
  

By Comparison:

• Homosexuality not criminalized in mainland China since 1997
• Right to change gender on legal documents varies from
  province to province, restricted to those who have had sex reassignment surgery
  

• Homosexuality not criminalized since 1967 (England and Wales), 1981 (Scotland), 1982 (Northern Ireland); Equal age of consent since 2001
• Right to change gender on legal documents, including birth certificate, without requiring reassignment surgery. However, the person must have transitioned 2 years prior to issue of the new certificate (Gender Recognition Act 2004).

• Same sex unions were legally recognized in the UK in 2005
• Single adults and couples are eligible to apply to adopt a child under Adoption and Children Act 2002 (England and Wales) previous condition that the couple be married was dropped, thus including same-sex couples.

• Civil laws protecting people from discrimination on the basis gender identity existed since 1999
  
• Civil laws protecting people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation existed since 2003
  

1. Colonial Ties, Movements, and Modernization
2. Migrant Workers & The Sexual Other
3. The Internet