Transgender rights activists yesterday said that reforms on gender reassignment regulations might require legislative action, amid speculation that current reforms aimed at revising an administrative order issued by the Ministry of the Interior will not succeed.
Prospects are unclear on whether the ministry would finalize its decision by Sunday — as promised by Minister of the Interior Chen Wei-zen (陳威仁) last month — following furious opposition from transgender activists over a new draft proposed by the ministry last week.
The controversial draft would bar married applicants or those with children from changing their registered gender and would limit gender reassignment to once in a lifetime.
Transgender and transsexual activists said the rules infringed on the rights of many middle-aged people who wish to legally change their gender despite having gone through marriage or having children.
TG Butterfly Garden spokesperson Quinton Kao (高旭寬), a female-to-male transsexual, said that suggestions to adopt a legislative path were made during a meeting at the ministry on Friday.
He said that it was “highly unlikely” that the issue would be resolved by its proposed deadline on Sunday, adding that a legislative path could take several years.
Household Registration deputy director Jair Lan-pin (翟蘭萍) said the ministry is still compiling the suggestions of different government agencies on the issue and is set to receive their written reports by tomorrow.
She said that a legislative path toward reform on gender reassignment regulations was “an option.”
On Dec. 25, the ministry agreed to terminate a controversial requirement for the surgical removal of gender-specific organs before a person can apply for gender reassignment, and promised to devise new regulations within one month.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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