Two months after the Council of Grand Justices first convened on March 24 to hear oral arguments regarding petitions on same-sex marriage, it passed the landmark Constitutional Interpretation No. 748, ruling for the first time in Taiwan — and all of Asia — that discrimination based on sexual orientation in the law is unconstitutional, as it violates people’s constitutional guarantees to the rights of equality and freedom of marriage.
Owing to the efforts of women and gender movements, many provisions of the legal system have been amended to replace the term “equality of both sexes” with “gender equality.”
This interpretation finally transcends a discourse on sexual equality that includes only two sexes. This is not only an important moment for the nation, but a crucial juncture in Asia, and has attracted global attention. It will hopefully influence other nations in the region to follow suit.
Over the past two weeks, we have been contacted by numerous international media outlets such as the BBC, CNN, Agence France-Presse and Japan’s Sankei Shimbun, as well as international human rights organizations — including the Human Rights Campaign, Amnesty International and the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association — hoping to obtain firsthand information about the outcome of this case and communicate it to the international community.
For Taiwan, which was excluded from the World Health Assembly on May 22 due to China’s interference, this is a great opportunity to share information with the international community, as well as a great moment to prove to the world that Taiwan respects diversity, values human rights and cares about democracy and equality, all of which distinguishes it from China.
However, during the period between the oral arguments and the interpretation, some religious groups that do not accept same-sex marriage because of their beliefs have attempted to manipulate people due to their own lack of understanding. They spread a message of hatred and discrimination, repeatedly damaging gay people and their families and seriously challenging the democracy Taiwanese have earned through time and toil.
These groups enjoy the freedom of speech earned with the blood and sweat of the nation’s democracy pioneers, and use it to engage in anti-democratic behavior that hurts others and spreads hatred — both ironic and regrettable.
The Civil Code amendment for marriage equality is not only a bill that will allow same-sex couples to marry, but will also encourage love and happiness.
It also demonstrates that many Taiwanese want to have a bill that shows tolerance of differences, enabling people to coexist peacefully.
As long-term participants of social movements, we understand that social reform does not happen overnight, but we also feel that it is incumbent on our ruling party and national leaders to do everything they can to communicate and educate people.
The Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan on April 27 held a symposium, inviting personnel from the Canadian, French, US and UK representative offices to share their opinions.
The representatives of these four nations unanimously said that after same-sex marriage was legalized in their respective countries, support for the issue has steadily risen as the public came to realize that changes to the law do not affect their lives in any way.
In addition, because the state treats gay people equally, they are more willing to come out of the closet, enabling society to better understand and be more accepting.
None of the anti-gay marriage groups’ concerns came to pass.
The legislature has been trying to deal with the issue of marriage equality for quite some time.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in 2006 proposed a draft bill legalizing same-sex marriage, but it was blocked in the Procedure Committee.
Eleven years later in 2013, a draft bill researched by the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights and proposed by DPP Legislator Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) only made it to the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee for a question-and-answer session, but was unable to make it to an item-by-item review.
Last year, the issue received cross-party support, with DPP Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Jason Hsu (許毓仁) putting forward bills. These were passed after the first instance in the committee, but nearly six months later, they had still not progressed further, and no legislator put forward any other proposals.
This year, the Council of Grand Justices — the guardians of the Constitution — on May 24 declared that the Civil Code was unconstitutional, giving lawmakers a clearer constitutional indication.
At the court’s announcement of its interpretation, nearly 10,000 people lined the street in front of the legislature, using small rainbow cards to light up the nation’s road to marriage equality, showing this light to the world.
This also served as a further reminder to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and the ruling DPP that they should light up Taiwan with love and equality, and deliver marriage equality with urgency.
There is no longer any excuse for lawmakers to prevaricate on this issue. Although the Judicial Yuan has given the legislature two years to amend the discrimination and differential treatment of gay people, the legislature should immediately commence negotiations and follow-up procedures to make up for past delays.
It needs to change marriage equality from an expectation to a reality, giving same-sex couples the equal protection they deserve, as well as realizing the only gender policy Tsai explicitly put forward during the presidential campaign.
Marriage equality should start now, with immediate effect.
Jennifer Lu is coordinator and Teng Chu-yuan is lobbying manager of the Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan.
Translated by Lin Lee-Kai
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