Members of eight gay rights groups gathered outside the Legislative Yuan yesterday to announce preliminary results of a candidate survey showing that legislative candidates from major parties lag behind “third force” party candidates in support of same-sex marriage legislation, urging the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to “come out” in favor of marriage equality.
“All district and legislator-at-large candidates from the Free Taiwan Party (FTP), New Power Party (NPP), Green Party-Social Democratic Party Alliance and Trees Party have already returned pledges,” Taiwan (SDP) Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights (TAPCPR) secretary-general Chien Chih-chieh (簡至潔) said. “There are still 10 days before the deadline for returning pledges and we hope that more candidates will join.”
Last week activists sent out more than 500 pledge forms to legislative candidates using contact information provided when registering with the Central Election Commission, calling for candidates to promise to serve as a sponsor or cosponsor of same-sex marriage legislation if elected, she said.
Pledges from the four parties legislative candidates made up 65 of the 83 pledges activists have received, compared with nine pledges from DPP candidates and only one from a KMT candidate, she said.
“Given that your presidential candidates have already adopted a friendly attitude toward marriage equality, we hope the political parties can take a stance,” she said, adding that party caucus leadership had been a major obstacle to pushing through bills this legislative session.
“When individual legislators push [for same sex marriage legislation], their own party does not support them and caucus leadership cuts them off or even puts obstacles in their way,” she said.
Promises to sponsor or cosponsor legislation are important because many legislators said they support gay rights, but “pass the buck” on supporting same-sex marriage legislation, citing a lack of “social consensus,” she said.
Activists said that sponsoring legislation was an important step toward building “social consensus.”
“Today you say that ‘there is a lot of societal controversy’ — but are you willing to move the dialogue forward?” said Wu Hsu-liang (巫緒樑) the administrative director of the activist group GB Studio.
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The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
INDUSTRY: Beijing’s latest export measures go beyond targeting the US and would likely affect any country that uses Chinese rare earths or related tech, an academic said Taiwanese industries could face significant disruption from China’s newly tightened export controls on rare earth elements, as much of Taiwan’s supply indirectly depends on Chinese materials processed in Japan, a local expert said yesterday. Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈), director of the Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, said that China’s latest export measures go far beyond targeting the US and would likely affect any country that uses Chinese rare earths or related technologies. With Japan and Southeast Asian countries among those expected to be hit, Taiwan could feel the impact through its reliance on Japanese-made semi-finished products and
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