Taiwan to become first Asian country to legalize same sex marriage - MAYBE

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Taiwan to become first Asian country to legalize same sex marriage - MAYBE

Post by Gaybutton »

fountainhall

Re: Taiwan to become first Asian country to legalize same sex marriage - MAYBE

Post by fountainhall »

I'm glad you stressed "MAYBE". Same-sex marriage in Taiwan has been discussed in various forums and threads. It did seem that this summer a bill would actually get through parliament. However, that video is now almost 6 months old and a lot has happened since then. The anti-gay marriage movement has been actively mobilising its forces. Even the President, whose platform prior to her election included gay marriage and who won the support of the LGBT community, has recently been backtracking. Some legislators have also changed their tune since the election. I was in Taiwan last week and my gay friends there are now less optimistic than they were at the end of 2016.

Perhaps not surprisingly, many of the Christian Churches have been at the forefront of the anti movement. Yet the extraordinary fact is that the government's own statistics show that less than 5% of the population belong to such churches! How they can wield such influence beats me!

At issue is not simply the LGBT community against the rest. There does seem to be a slim majority in parliament for some form of gay marriage. But they cannot decide whether this requires simply an amendment to an existing marriage law or a totally new law. And if the anti-movement can effectively spilt the pro movement, it could spell the end for the time being of Taiwan actually becoming the first Asian country to permit gay marriage. We should know quite soon as there is a vote scheduled for tomorrow.

Whatever the outcome of the vote, gays in Taiwan already enjoy a great deal more freedom than in almost all other Asian countries. The equivalent of civil partnerships is now permitted by all the major cities and about 80%+ of the country. Hopefully the new bill will pass and gay marriage will become fact. If that does indeed happen, I believe some other countries will not just take note but start to act for similar legislation. Vietnam's parliament has been considering a bill for quite some time. Could it be the second Asian country with gay marriage?
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