Lawmakers on the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee yesterday had a turbulent time as they tried to discuss proposals to amend the Civil Code to legalize same-sex marriage, amid scuffles and protests interrupting the meeting, which finally ended last night with a decision to hold two open hearings next week ahead of a review of the bills.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators had planned to review the proposed amendments, but they were blocked by stiff opposition from their Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) colleagues.
There was also public pressure on DPP legislators, especially on committee convener Yu Mei-nu (尤美女), as an estimated crowd of 20,000 rallied outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to voice their objections to same-sex marriage.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The rally was organized by a coalition of religious organizations and civic groups demanding the protection of “traditional family values,” the upholding of Confucian moral ethics and the retention of the legal definition of marriage as the union between a man and a woman.
KMT and PFP legislators trying to stymie a review of the proposed amendments said they were reflecting the majority opinion of the public and that the review procedure had been rushed through and lacked the proper scrutiny and public consultations necessary.
The committee was scheduled to deliberate three different amendments were submitted by DPP, KMT and New Power Party lawmakers.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
KMT and PFP lawmakers joined forces in an attempt to push through a motion that would see 32 public hearings held nationwide before the proposed amendments could be deliberated by the committee.
However, with Yu presiding over the committee, DPP legislators voted down the motion and Yu announced the session would review the amendments until the end of the day’s session.
Yu’s announcement angered pan-blue camp legislators, with two KMT committee members, Sufin Siluko (廖國棟) and Yosi Takun (孔文吉) pushing their way up to a podium to protest, and engaging in a scuffle with several DPP lawmakers.
Four protesters had tried to enter the committee room during the morning session, shouting: “Legislators are monsters” and “Taiwan will become an AIDS island.”
The four were escorted away by police.
The session resumed with legislators taking turns to question Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) and other ministry officials, with some calling for a special law on same-sex partnerships and for the Civil Code to remain unaltered.
The committee meeting was disrupted again in the afternoon, when a group of anti-gay marriage protesters stormed into the Legislative Yuan through a side gate, with journalists, police and legislators also converging on the gate.
A number of KMT legislators went to talk to the intruders, who then staged a sit-in outside of the legislative chamber despite efforts by police to remove them.
When the session resumed, the party caucuses negotiated, as KMT and PFP members would not back down from their demands that public hearings be held so that more citizens and civic organizations could give their input.
Later, the parties compromised by agreeing to hold two public hearings in the coming weeks.
“It was regrettable that we encountered such opposition and protests from various groups. After cross-party negotiation, the committee decided to compromise by postponing reviews of the proposed amendments to avert conflicts in society,” Yu said.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan
RSS