A Taiwanese-Japanese same-sex couple yesterday filed an administrative suit against the Ministry of the Interior (MOI), urging it to amend laws to allow same-sex couples to be married in Taiwan regardless of laws in their countries of origin.
Constitutional Interpretation No. 748 has legalized same-sex marriage in Taiwan, and transnational same-sex couples can register their marriage under the Act for Judicial Yuan’s Implementation of Constitutional Interpretation No. 748 (司法院釋字第七四八號解釋施行法) if they are from a country that recognizes same-sex marriage, the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights said yesterday.
The couple in question, Taiwanese A-shu (阿樹) and his Japanese partner, Eizaburo Ariyoshi, planned to register their marriage at the household registration office in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) on May 8 last year, but the Ministry of the Interior instructed the office to reject their application.
Photo: CNA
The couple cited as examples the transnational marriages of gay rights advocate Chi Chia-wei (祁家威), and Taiwanese-Macanese couple Hsin-chi (信奇) and A-gu (阿古), but the ministry said those cases were of a different nature.
Taiwanese Hsin-chi and Macanese A-gu won an administrative suit against the government on May 7, 2020, with the Taiwan High Administrative Court’s Taipei branch ruling in their favor.
Ariyoshi said that his mother had encouraged their relationship, saying that having a lover was a beautiful thing and that it should transcend gender, adding that he hoped their actions could help other same-sex couples find the strength to go on.
He also said that he hoped all transnational couples who are waiting would succeed in registering their marriage.
Meiji University Department of Law professor Suzuki Ken said that law was in A-shu and his partner’s favor, as there have been three sets of lawsuits filed on transnational marriages and all of them received a verdict in favor of upholding the marriages.
The Taiwanese court should allow Taiwan-Japan same-sex marriages, so that couples like A-shu and his partner can be at ease when living in Taiwan, Suzuki said.
The alliance’s lawyer, Hsu Hsiu-wen (許秀雯), said that transnational marriages are the best way to foster public diplomacy.
Taiwan, the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, should offer hope for couples to be happy together, instead of keeping them apart due to legal obstructions, Hsu added.
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