Gay rights groups on Friday urged the Executive Yuan to respond to the May constitutional interpretation by the Council of Grand Justices in favor of same-sex marriage and quickly propose a draft bill for its legalization.
Although Premier William Lai (賴清德) has expressed support for same-sex marriage, a bill is nowhere to be seen on his Cabinet’s list of priorities, gay-marriage advocate Jennifer Lu (呂欣潔) said at a news conference at the legislature.
The court had asked the government to work out the details needed to achieve the “equal protection of the freedom of marriage,” Lu said, urging the Executive Yuan to fulfill its responsibility and propose a draft bill in response to the ruling.
She also called on the Legislative Yuan to quickly pass the second and third reading of an amendment to the Civil Code that would legalize same-sex marriage and allow married gay couples to adopt children.
The amendment has been stuck in the legislature after it passed an initial reading late last year.
Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association member Tsao Cheng-hsi (曹承羲) said that gay couples urgently need legal recognition and protection, and Lai should not turn away from them.
Taiwan Gender Queer Rights Advocacy Alliance secretary-general Nelson Hu (胡勝翔) said his partner of 12 years had been diagnosed with a rare form of hemangioma and doctors have said he could die soon.
Even though they have registered their partnership at a household registration office, giving Hu the right to sign medical forms for his partner, they are still excluded from many social welfare benefits reserved for married heterosexual couples, Hu said.
“We don’t have that much time to wait,” he said in a statement.
Cabinet spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said that the executive would handle the issue within the time allotted by the Grand Justices and would listen to opinions from all sides.
The court asked the authorities to amend or enact laws to legalize same-sex marriage within two years.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus whip Ho Hsin-chun (何欣純) said she believes the that Executive Yuan will respect the court’s ruling and push for marriage equality.
Ho said that the issue has yet to be discussed in the DPP caucus meeting, but she respects individual lawmakers’ opinions.
The news conference was held ahead of the one-year anniversary of the death of French lecturer Jacques Picoux, who committed suicide on Oct. 16 last year.
A prominent figure in the gay community, Picoux was reportedly denied the right to make medical decisions for his longtime partner before he died of an illness.
He was later also forced to vacate the apartment he shared with his partner, because their union was not recognized as a marriage.
Picoux’s death reignited calls for the legalization of same-sex marriage in Taiwan.
The groups said they are to host an event to commemorate Picoux on Oct. 16 on Taipei’s Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening 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) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS