Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Friday said that he had cast invalid votes in 2018 referendums related to legalizing same-sex marriage and same-sex education.
In a Facebook post about his opinions on the referendums, Ko wrote that he had cast invalid votes, but did not specify why they were invalid.
He also wrote that he believes that “basic human rights and universal values should not be decided by majority rule.”
The comments came just before yesterday’s Kaohsiung Pride parade, which echoes Global Pride 2020, a 24-hour livestream event celebrating the LGBTQI community.
In the referendums held on Nov. 24, 2018, five were related to same-sex marriage and gender equality.
Ko was referring to referendum Nos. 14 and No. 15, which both failed to pass.
Referendum No. 14 asked: “Do you agree that the right to marriage of persons of the same sex should be protected by legislation under the chapter on marriage of the Civil Code?” while No. 15 asked: “Do you agree that mandatory education should, as stipulated by the Gender Equity Education Act (性別平等教育法), implement gender equality education, which includes emotional, sexual and gay and lesbian education?”
“Issues concerning ‘value’ and ‘human rights’ should not be decided by voting, competing for who are the majority or minority, or who are the winners and losers. There should be better ways to solve conflicts, rather than expand them,” Ko wrote.
The Taipei Department of Civil Affairs in 2017 asked for a constitutional interpretation on the issue of the Civil Code not allowing for the legalization of same-sex marriage, and the Council of Grand Justices in May 2017 ruled that the prohibition of same-sex marriage in the Civil Code was unconstitutional, he wrote.
The interpretation also said that the government must amend or enact laws in accordance with the ruling within two years, so the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers should have directly amended the law last year, rather than put the issue to referendums in 2018, Ko said.
“I admit that my understanding of gay, lesbian and gender issues is still too little, but I would firmly support the idea that ‘all people are created equal,’” he wrote, adding that he had invited the LGBT community to visit Taipei for the LGBT Pride parade in late October last year.
However, DPP Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) yesterday on Facebook questioned Ko’s real stance on legalizing same-sex marriage, saying that the mayor has been inconsistent on the nation’s sovereignty and LGBT equality rights.
The Taipei City Government had always been the most gender-friendly local government, but the city government under Ko has ignored LGBT groups’ protests and allowed representatives of anti-LGBT groups to attend the city’s Gender Equality Education Committee meetings, she wrote.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS