The Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights (TAPCPR), along with legislators and human rights groups, yesterday called for freedom of marriage for all cross-national same-sex couples, instead of each case being decided by the courts.
The Taipei High Administrative Court on July 21 ruled that same-sex partners Lu Yin-jen (盧盈任), a Taiwanese, and Eizaburo Ariyoshi, a Japanese, should not have been barred from registering their marriage at a local household registration office.
The court revoked a decision by the office to reject an application that the couple had filed on May 7 last year, citing Article 8 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 a foreign law is not applicable if it violates the public order or good morals of Taiwan.
Photo: Liao Chen-hui, Taipei Times
TAPCPR secretary-general Chien Chih-chieh (簡至潔) said it was the fourth case in which the court has ruled in favor of cross-national same-sex couples.
However, the Ministry of the Interior still says that according to Article 46 of the act, the formation of a marriage is governed by the law of each party’s country of nationality, she said.
Based on the precedent set by Lu and Ariyoshi and the three earlier cases, all cross-national same-sex couples’ marriage registrations should be accepted, Chien said.
New Power Party Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭) said if the court has ruled that local household registration offices should accept same-sex marriage applications, even if they involve a national from a state in which same-sex marriage is not recognized, then the contradicting article of the act should be amended.
Before the amendment is passed, the ministry should notify the offices that they should accept such applications, she added.
Allison, a Taiwanese who is working in Japan and living with her Japanese partner and their eight-month-old child, said that she and her partner hope to settle down in Taiwan, but their right to residency is not protected, as they cannot register their marriage in either country.
The future of their family is filled with uncertainty, and she is afraid that they might be separated at any moment, she said.
Amnesty International Taiwan campaign manager Pan Yi (潘儀) shared her own experience of being unable to get married with her Malaysian partner, who she has been with for seven years.
She said that hundreds of cross-national same-sex couples live with the fear of suddenly being forced to separate.
As Taiwan is the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, many supporters around the world are following developments in the nation, so the government should choose love over hatred and discrimination, and allow people to get married, irrespective of their nationality, she said.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS