This week has been positive and negative regarding marriage in Taiwan. The military’s annual joint wedding ceremonies scheduled for Friday are to include two same-sex couples — a first for Taiwan since same-sex marriage was legalized in May last year.
However, the age-old problem of women being mistreated by their in-laws continues, and a petition has been launched to enact legislation to prevent such treatment after it allegedly led to a suicide in August.
The woman left behind an Internet post that included the phrase: “My mother-in-law killed me.”
Same-sex marriage in the military is especially welcome news, as three couples who had signed up last year eventually withdrew from the ceremony due to “public pressure and individual reasons,” according to the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper).
Even though many Internet users congratulated the couples when they announced their participation, there were also derogatory remarks, including those who questioned the ability of gay men to defend the nation.
It is unfortunate, and if this “pressure” was serious enough to cause all three couples to change their decision, it is clear that public prejudices have yet to catch up with the law.
This is a big reason that the LGBT Pride Parade, which is to take place on Saturday, is still hugely important, and advocates have said that legalization was just the beginning.
Legalization gives many the illusion that LGBTQ equality has been achieved, but a poll released in May showed otherwise: Many items showed low percentages, including less than half who could accept their child being gay.
It is important that the government continues to lead by example, and especially the military, where such matters are generally more sensitive. In South Korea, for example, homosexual activity remains illegal, not to mention the widely reported discrimination and harassment that LGBTQ soldiers there suffer.
Even though many Taiwanese soldiers remain afraid to come out to their peers, and discrimination undoubtedly exists, at least the military establishment is accepting about same-sex marriage. Change takes time and this is a marked improvement.
However, even with the right to marry, it is not easy to maintain a marriage. Women being mistreated by in-laws has become a hot topic, and a petition to enact legislation to curb such behavior reached the threshold of 5,000 signatures on Monday to elicit an official response.
The petition said that women are still subject to the outdated and patriarchal attitude that they belong to their husband’s family, and often the husband sides with his parents and tells his wife to just bear with it.
As more women take to Internet forums to complain, a quick search shows countless posts made in the past few months. In the more serious cases, women develop mental issues, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, while some commit suicide.
Again, societal values need to change, but like LGBTQ equality, that would take time.
However, if there can be legislation against bullying and domestic violence, there can also be laws to regulate the behavior of in-laws to at least give them an idea of what is acceptable.
It is easy to tell LGBTQ people to just come out to their parents, and for abused daughters-in-law and their husbands to simply fight back, but traditional family values and other extenuating circumstances persist. The government has until Dec. 25 to respond to the petition and it will be interesting to see what it says.
China badly misread Japan. It sought to intimidate Tokyo into silence on Taiwan. Instead, it has achieved the opposite by hardening Japanese resolve. By trying to bludgeon a major power like Japan into accepting its “red lines” — above all on Taiwan — China laid bare the raw coercive logic of compellence now driving its foreign policy toward Asian states. From the Taiwan Strait and the East and South China Seas to the Himalayan frontier, Beijing has increasingly relied on economic warfare, diplomatic intimidation and military pressure to bend neighbors to its will. Confident in its growing power, China appeared to believe
After more than three weeks since the Honduran elections took place, its National Electoral Council finally certified the new president of Honduras. During the campaign, the two leading contenders, Nasry Asfura and Salvador Nasralla, who according to the council were separated by 27,026 votes in the final tally, promised to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan if elected. Nasralla refused to accept the result and said that he would challenge all the irregularities in court. However, with formal recognition from the US and rapid acknowledgment from key regional governments, including Argentina and Panama, a reversal of the results appears institutionally and politically
In 2009, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) made a welcome move to offer in-house contracts to all outsourced employees. It was a step forward for labor relations and the enterprise facing long-standing issues around outsourcing. TSMC founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) once said: “Anything that goes against basic values and principles must be reformed regardless of the cost — on this, there can be no compromise.” The quote is a testament to a core belief of the company’s culture: Injustices must be faced head-on and set right. If TSMC can be clear on its convictions, then should the Ministry of Education
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) provided several reasons for military drills it conducted in five zones around Taiwan on Monday and yesterday. The first was as a warning to “Taiwanese independence forces” to cease and desist. This is a consistent line from the Chinese authorities. The second was that the drills were aimed at “deterrence” of outside military intervention. Monday’s announcement of the drills was the first time that Beijing has publicly used the second reason for conducting such drills. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership is clearly rattled by “external forces” apparently consolidating around an intention to intervene. The targets of
RSS