In response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Pasuya Yao’s (姚文智) question on Monday regarding the government’s stance on three Civil Code marriage equality amendment proposals, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶) said that Premier Lin Chuan (林全) has urged the Ministry of Justice to take action and has expressed support for legalizing same-sex marriage.
That was the executive branch of the central government for the first time formally supporting the legalization of same-sex marriage, which has received broad support from across party lines.
There are three proposed amendments to the Civil Code. The first comes from the New Power Party, which asked for changes to the family relations section of the code, in addition to revisions of the Family Act (家事事件法). The second was a motion supported by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Jason Hsu (許毓仁) regarding parts of the code related to family relations and inheritance. The third was submitted by DPP Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女).
While national recognition of same-sex partnerships requires a revision to the code, there are 11 cities and counties that already recognize same-sex partnerships in their household registration systems: the six special municipalities and Chiayi City, as well as Yilan, Hsinchu, Changhua and Chiayi counties.
Despite an encroaching sense of disillusionment among many in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community about President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) silence on the issue since taking office, Tsai has publicly supported same-sex marriage in the past, including at the Taiwan LGBT Pride Parade last year.
The legalization of same-sex marriage and marriage equality are contentious issues in which the government of a democratic nation should represent all voices. Many remain opposed to the idea, notably among Christian groups, and of course it is important, with an issue as substantive, emotive, contentious and momentous as this, that all voices are heard and that the public enter into a rational debate on it.
However, it is difficult to argue with the fact that Taiwanese society is increasingly supportive of marriage equality. In 2013, a poll by the Policy Research Association showed that 53.7 percent of respondents agreed that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry. Two years later, a Ministry of Justice poll revealed that 71 percent of respondents supported a same-sex marriage act.
According to reports, more than 50,000 people attended the Taiwan LGBT Pride Parade in 2012, rising to 70,000 in 2014 and 80,000 last year.
Same-sex marriage is legal in Belgium, the UK, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, the US, New Zealand, France and Uruguay, among other countries. If it were to be made legal here, Taiwan would become the first Asian nation to legalize same-sex marriage, and would be, once again, a beacon of human rights and universal values in Asia.
It is an important decision. If the government decides for legalization, it is not something that can be rolled back. It is not about trying out the optimum level of tariffs to be applied to certain products, or about tweaking rules and regulations in a certain sector. It is about people’s lives, and their plans and expectations. It is about how they identify themselves and the rest of society, and their perception of their identity in society, for both sides of the argument. It is about the direction that society takes.
Once the decision is made, and equal marriage rights are given to all members of society regardless of sexual orientation, it cannot be retracted. If this is the direction in which global society is moving — if this is to become the norm in other members of the international community in which Taiwan so dearly wants to participate — then deciding against legalizing same-sex marriage, only to accede years later, would unnecessarily prolong the uncertainty and anguish for many people.
Because much of what former US president Donald Trump says is unhinged and histrionic, it is tempting to dismiss all of it as bunk. Yet the potential future president has a populist knack for sounding alarums that resonate with the zeitgeist — for example, with growing anxiety about World War III and nuclear Armageddon. “We’re a failing nation,” Trump ranted during his US presidential debate against US Vice President Kamala Harris in one particularly meandering answer (the one that also recycled urban myths about immigrants eating cats). “And what, what’s going on here, you’re going to end up in World War
Earlier this month in Newsweek, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to retake the territories lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. He stated: “If it is for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t [the PRC] take back the lands occupied by Russia that were signed over in the treaty of Aigun?” This was a brilliant political move to finally state openly what many Chinese in both China and Taiwan have long been thinking about the lost territories in the Russian far east: The Russian far east should be “theirs.” Granted, Lai issued
On Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) met with a delegation from the Hoover Institution, a think tank based at Stanford University in California, to discuss strengthening US-Taiwan relations and enhancing peace and stability in the region. The delegation was led by James Ellis Jr, co-chair of the institution’s Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region project and former commander of the US Strategic Command. It also included former Australian minister for foreign affairs Marise Payne, influential US academics and other former policymakers. Think tank diplomacy is an important component of Taiwan’s efforts to maintain high-level dialogue with other nations with which it does
On Sept. 2, Elbridge Colby, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development, wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal called “The US and Taiwan Must Change Course” that defends his position that the US and Taiwan are not doing enough to deter the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from taking Taiwan. Colby is correct, of course: the US and Taiwan need to do a lot more or the PRC will invade Taiwan like Russia did against Ukraine. The US and Taiwan have failed to prepare properly to deter war. The blame must fall on politicians and policymakers