Hong Kong's top judges on Tuesday opened the path for sweeping legal protections for same sex couples but stopped short of full recognition of gay marriages after a landmark appeal by an LGBTQ activist in a ruling expected to be closely watched in Asia. The ruling ended a five year legal battle by Jimmy Sham to get the Hong Kong government to recognise his marriage to a man in New York in 2013. While the five judges on Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal did not grant Sham's appeal that he had a constitutional right to a same sex marriage in Hong Kong, they did demand the government create new legal protections for same sex couples in their daily lives.