When Taiwan became the first nation in Asia to allow same-sex marriage last year, Lois, a university professor, was among thousands of gay people who cheered and waved rainbow flags on the streets of Taipei.
A year on, she and her Chinese partner still have no right to legally wed, like hundreds of such couples who face restrictions over international same-sex unions.
As Taiwan marked a year since passing its historic law in a region where gay rights progress is slow, LGBT+ rights groups have called for full recognition of same-sex marriage to protect couples and families.
Photo: CNA
“I was so proud a year ago. Now I feel like I am treated like a third-class citizen,” said Lois, 42, who refused to give her surname, because she is not out at work.
Same-sex marriage became legal in Taiwan on May 24 last year, a week after the Legislative Yuan passed a bill offering similar protections of marriage to heterosexuals.
Yet gay people can only marry foreigners from a country where same-sex marriage is also legal, and adopt children biologically related to at least one of them.
Lois’ partner, who is from China, where gay marriage is not recognized, had to give up her job in 2017 and become a student so that she could stay in Taiwan and raise their three-year-old son.
As they are not legally married, Lois’ partner cannot get a spousal visa, and they have been apart since she and the couple’s son returned to China on holiday before Taiwan closed to visitors to control the spread of COVID-19.
“Under the law, my son and I are strangers. I want us — my wife, my son — to be recognized as a family,” Lois said.
A petition this month calling for full recognition has been signed by more than 10,000 people, said the organizer, the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights (TAPCPR).
“Many people have had to resort to using student or travel visas to stay here. It is causing a lot of anxiety and uncertainty,” TAPCPR secretary-general Chien Chih-chieh (簡至潔) said. “It is the final missing piece of the puzzle that we need to achieve marriage equality.”
As of Friday, 4,021 gay couples had married in Taiwan, data released yesterday by the Ministry of the Interior showed, adding that the majority of the registered marriages were female couples, at 2,773, or 69 percent, while 1,248 were male couples.
New Taipei City led with the registration of 815 same-sex marriages, followed by Taipei with 633 and Kaohsiung with 534, the data showed.
While the majority of same-sex marriages were between Taiwanese, the number of couples in which one spouse was a foreign national was 189, or 5 percent of the total.
Among them, 80 people were from the US, followed by Canada at 21 and Australia at 17, ministry data showed.
A government survey conducted from May 4 to May 6 found that 52.5 percent of Taiwanese agree that same-sex couples should have the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts — a significant rise from the 37.4 percent surveyed prior to the legalization of gay marriage in 2018.
Elsewhere in Asia, progress toward gay marriage has been slow.
A court in the Philippines rejected a same-sex marriage petition last year and Hong Kong has upheld a ban on civil partnerships, although gay couples have made small gains in public housing and spousal visa rights.
Thailand drafted a bill that would recognize same-sex couples as civil partners, but progress since has stalled. Japanese gay couples meanwhile sued the government over the right to marriage last year.
“We understand changes in society take time,” said Jennifer Lu (呂欣潔), East Asian representative for the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.
She said that the law’s passage in Taiwan was a breakthrough as it shows gay marriage does not contradict “Asian values.”
Taiwanese publisher Lai Kai-li (賴凱俐) is optimistic that same-sex unions will be accepted more widely in Taiwan and other parts of Asia.
Her partner of six years is Malaysian and has been on a student visa since 2016, the same year they held a symbolic “wedding” following Chinese traditions to celebrate with family.
“We are hoping to settle down and have a family,” the 37-year-old said. “I am confident it is a matter of time; the law will accept us.”
Additional reporting by CNA
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