Two pro-marriage equality referendums are likely to be held alongside the local elections next month, after the Central Election Commission yesterday announced that they have passed the second-phase legal threshold.
The commission on Tuesday is to decide whether the proposals will be on the ballot for the nine-in-one elections on Nov. 24.
The proposals, initiated by Social Democratic Party member Miao Po-ya (苗博雅) and advocate Wang Ting-yu (王鼎棫) respectively, have gathered enough signatures to clear the 281,745 threshold for the second phase of the process, the commission said.
Photo: Li Hsin-fang, Taipei Times
The proposals directly oppose three referendums organized by conservative groups and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers that have already cleared the commission’s review process.
Miao’s referendum proposal to legalize same-sex marriage under the marriage chapter of the Civil Code garnered 432,329 valid and 42,448 invalid signatures, 2,498 of which were forgeries and 44 belonged to dead people, it said.
Wang’s proposal supporting lessons on emotional and sex education and homosexuality through the Gender Equity Education Act (性別平等教育法) garnered 438,066 valid and 46,183 invalid signatures, including 2,580 suspected forgeries and 42 belonging to the deceased, the commission said.
The commission is likely to clear the proposals for the ballot box while pressing forgery charges against their organizers, as it has done for three KMT-initiated referendums.
Later yesterday, the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights (TAPCPR) and other groups held a news conference ouside the commission in Taipei to express their “resolute opposition” to the anti-LGBT referendums initiated by the Happiness of the Next Generation Alliance and other groups.
The Happiness of the Next Generation Alliance is associated with the referendums to legally define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, recognize same-sex relationships by means other than marriage and to forbid mentioning homosexuality in gender-equality classes at elementary and junior-high schools.
The commission never should have allowed the three proposals, which are potentially unconstitutional, to become referendums, TAPCPR executive officer and LGBT rights attorney Victoria Hsu (許秀雯) said.
The TAPCPR said it has applied with the commission to establish offices to campaign against the anti-LGBT referendums, as referendum opponents are entitled to participate in the commission’s televised public forums and debates under Article 20 of the Referendum Act (公民投票法).
“The TAPCPR is prepared to expose anti-LGBT organizations that espouse family values to mask their true agenda of discrimination and hate,” the organization said. “While anti-LGBT groups have better funding to buy ads, we will use public debate as our platform to spread factual information.”
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS