Taiwan Marriage Equality News
While America is currently facing a crisis concerning LGBT rights, it seems that Taiwan is going in the opposite direction.
Thailand is known for being one of the most LGBT friendly countries in Asia, but it is in fact Taiwan that is leading the charge toward getting real legislative rights for its LGBT citizens.
Organizations like the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association have taken several steps in order to fight for marriage equality in just the last year alone.
Some of these efforts include marching on the International Humans Rights Day, the prohibiting of conversion therapy, and preliminary amendments to the Civil Code including the words “an agreement to marry between people of the same sex shall be made by the two parties involved” to article 927 that were then sent for further negotiations.
That said, there are still those that oppose the ruling for same-sex marriage, as Focus Taiwan released a poll in December stating that, 37.8% of Taiwanese people supported the change (and 13.6% within that were in strong favor of it), while 56% were against it (and 34.8% strongly so).
The survey also showed that the majority (76%) surveyed wanted a referendum or a popular vote to decide and 57% wished for a special law enacted instead of an amendment to the Civil Code.
That aside, organizations like the Tongzhi Hotline press on with the fight for marriage equality.
As legislation currently reviews two proposals to amend the Civil Code, the hotline and three other organizations, like the website All Out, have launched a fundraiser and youtube video to support their lobbying efforts towards marriage equality in the country.
Wayne Lin, the chairperson for the Tongzhi Hotline, commented on Taiwan’s recent events to Gay Star News, “Asian people tend to relate marriage equality or LGBTQ rights to ‘western culture.”
“Taiwan’s legalizing marriage equality is important to Asia, because we can show marriage equality is common value regardless eastern or western culture. Other Asian countries can take Taiwan as an showcase and develop their tactics to make it happen locally.”
Lin then went further to speak on why support of the Tongzhi hotline and similar organizations is important, “People’s supports mean they care about minorities and their equality in Taiwan.”
“Furthermore, as the opposition uses scare tactics to frighten parents that legalizing marriage equality will turn their children into LGBTQ, the fund raised can be used for media exposure of LGBTQ people’s true stories and regain people’s support.”
‘We will try our best to make people, including President Tsai (Ing-wen) and legislators, to realize legalizing marriage equality through Civil Code amendment will make Taiwan a better place for everyone.”
Again, if you want to support Taiwan into becoming the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage, head over and donate to the Tongzhai Hotline’s fundraiser.
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By: Devin Randall
Photo Credit: USA Today
