Gender rights activists yesterday called on adoption agencies and the government to relax regulations on adoption and artificial insemination so that unmarried women and homosexual couples could also have children.
“The definition of ‘family’ is quickly changing in society. However, while the government recognizes that there’s a growing number of single-parent families, it’s still quite narrow-minded about what a family is,” Huang Chang-ling (黃長玲), a representative of the Awakening Foundation, told a news conference yesterday.
“Somehow, the government and adoption agencies think that a woman can still be a good mother after getting divorced, but an unmarried woman cannot become a good mother,” Huang said.
She said that some women were just not made for marriage, but they would still be good mothers.
Right now, most adoption agencies in the country require adoptive parents to be a husband and wife.
Although the Civil Code (民法) and the Children and Juveniles Welfare Act (兒童及青少年福利法) only stipulate that a court rule on an adoption case based on an evaluation of an adoptive parent’s personal character, economic status, family condition and childcare experience in the past, many of the rulings are still made based on marriage status or sexual orientation.
A lesbian’s application to adopt her sister’s child was rejected by a court in Taoyuan County two years ago because of her sexual orientation, Les Hand Association vice-chairwoman, who is nicknamed Hsiao Yi (小逸), said during the press conference.
“The two sisters had already agreed on the adoption, but it was blocked during the legal process because the judge worried that the child may have a ‘confused sexual orientation’ if he or she were brought up by a lesbian,” Hsiao Yi said.
Because adoption is ruled out, many homosexual couples and unmarried women turn to technology for a solution.
“Unfortunately, the Artificial Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) says that only a married man and woman are qualified to use the option [of artificial insemination],” said Chen Chao-ju (陳昭如), another Awakening Foundation member.
A representative from the Taiwan Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Family Rights Advocacy Association nicknamed Hsiang (祥) said the law has created social injustice along with other problems.
“A lot of unmarried celebrities go to other countries for artificial insemination, but most of us don’t have the money to do that — it’s not fair,” she said. “So in order to have a child, many lesbians enter into fake unions, and a lot of problems occur for lesbians in fake marriages.”
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