The Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights has launched a petition in support of same-sex marriage between Taiwanese and foreign nationals from countries where same-sex marriage is not legal.
Nearly 10,000 people have signed the online petition since it was launched on April 1, the alliance said.
To garner more support, the alliance will be collecting signatures in person in Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Kaohsiung, and Miaoli, Chiayi and Hualien counties on Saturday, working with other LGBT rights groups such as the Taiwan Transnational Marriage Equality Alliance.
The alliance said it hopes people will sign the petition to support LGBT people whose “rights are not yet complete.”
A list of signing locations and times can be found on the alliance’s Facebook page.
Sunday next week marks the one-year anniversary of the Legislative Yuan’s passage of the Act for Implementation of Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 748 (司法院釋字第748號解釋施行法).
However, the alliance has said that due to Article 46 of the Act Governing the Choice of Law in Civil Matters Involving Foreign Elements (涉外民事法律適用法), which stipulates that “the formation of a marriage is governed by the national law of each party,” if one party in a same-sex relationship is from a country where same-sex marriage has not been legalized, they cannot get married in Taiwan.
Only 28 countries have legalized same-sex marriage, the alliance said.
Meanwhile, a fundraising campaign started by the alliance on Friday last week had raised more than NT$2.5 million (US$83,584) from more than 1,600 donors as of press time last night.
The alliance said that it raised more than NT$1 million on the first day of the campaign, titled “SEA You Soon” (飄洋過海來看你).
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