The Cabinet’s same-sex marriage bill is biased against homosexual couples, as it does not protect their rights under the Civil Code, an advocacy group said yesterday in a protest in front of the Executive Yuan in Taipei.
The Executive Yuan on Thursday unveiled the draft “enforcement act of Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 748,” which, if passed by the Legislative Yuan, would allow two people of the same sex who are at least 18 years old to be legally married.
The bill is expected to go into effect on May 24, in compliance with Constitutional Interpretation No. 748 passed by the Council of Grand Justices on May 24, 2017, which set a two-year deadline for the passage of legal amendments or a new law to guarantee the constitutional right to same-sex marriage.
Photo: CNA
Marriage equality advocates have been divided in their response to the bill.
The bill reflects the interpretation’s spirit, but provisions related to the definition of kinship, adoption, marriage with foreigners, religious freedom and surrogacy should be revised or clarified, the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights said in a statement on Thursday.
However, the International Socialist Forward yesterday told a news conference that the bill discriminates against same-sex couples and should be rejected.
It neither contain the word “marriage” in its title, nor allows same-sex couples to adopt children who are not their direct relatives, group member Vincent Hsu (許偉育) said.
He does not agree with some groups’ notion that “it is better to have a bill first than to have a perfect one,” Hsu said, adding that the government should amend the Civil Code to better protect same-sex marriage.
“This is not the time to thank the Democratic Progressive Party for launching such a bill, but to join forces to fight homophobes, who would not stop bullying homosexuals,” he said.
After the news conference, the protesters marched to the Happiness of the Next Generation Alliance’s office and pasted Chinese-language leaflets outside the building’s walls.
“Striking down homophobic power so that homosexuals can have equal rights,” one of the leaflets read.
An participant also gave a speech that was streamed online.
The alliance on Friday said that the bill violates the results of three referendums that were held in November last year, when more than 7 million people voted in favor of a proposal that said marriage should be confined to a union between a woman and a man.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS