Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) groups and more than 2000 demonstrators assembled outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday to urge lawmakers to make Taiwan the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage.
Led by a coalition of LGBT advocates from the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights (TAPCPR) and other groups, the demonstrators demanded that the “Marriage Equality Amendment” be applied to the Civil Code by the end of the current legislative session in December.
The rally followed a month-long campaign by the groups to get legislators to publicize their stance on same-sex marriage and took on a jubilant tone, with colorful banners draped across a stage on Qingdao E Road next to the Legislative Yuan and large rainbow flags flying from the rooftops of buildings nearby.
Photo: CNA
At one point, demonstrators danced in unison to a satirical techno remix of homophobic remarks made by Kuo Mei-chiang (郭美江), a Christian pastor who gained notoriety among netizens after characterizing homosexuality as “an interpretation of witchcraft” in a sermon last year.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) attended the event to show her support.
As convener of the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee, Yu vowed to organize public hearings for the cause this month, while also restating her wish to place the amendment on the committee’s agenda during her term as convener.
Photo: Reuters
DPP legislators Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) and Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) also attended the event. Along with Yu, the three lawmakers unlocked “locks of homophobia” attached to the fences outside the legislature by the activists in a symbolic gesture to promote understanding.
Approval at committee stage is required before the amendment can be voted on at the legislature’s plenary session.
LGBT activists see a “difficult battle” ahead, as DPP members are outnumbered nine to four in the committee by their Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) counterparts.
Out of the 112 total legislators, the movement has secured the support of 15 DPP and four KMT lawmakers, as well as of two legislators from smaller parties.
Notably, some legislators who had previously been against same-sex marriage have agreed to support legislative deliberation for the amendment, including KMT lawmakers Ting Shou-Chung (丁守中) and Chi Kuo-tung (紀國棟).
Legislation to legalize same-sex marriage in Taiwan has already experienced several failed attempts.
Clashes occurred when opposing rallies for and against gay marriage took to the streets on the same day in November last year.
As of last year, public support for same-sex marriage has grown to 53 percent, while 37 percent of Taiwanese are opposed to it, according to a poll jointly conducted by TAPCPR and Academia Sinica.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods