LGBT+ advocates responded to Taiwan’s historic draft bill with cautious optimism.
The News Lens
Date: 2019/02/22
By: Michael Garber
Credit: AP / Chiang Ying-ying
The administration of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has approved a draft bill which, if passed, will make Taiwan the first country in Asia to legally enact marriage equality for same-sex couples.
The draft legislation comes almost two years after Taiwan’s highest court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. However, voters decided in last November’s referendums that marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman in Taiwan’s Civil Code, dealing a blow to Taiwan’s LGBT activists.
The new bill has frustrated the anti-same-sex marriage campaigners behind the November referendums, who had hoped for a watered down bill providing only for same-sex civil unions.
Taiwan’s Executive Yuan announced the draft bill on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2018.
The language of the draft bill, called “The Enforcement Act of Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 748,” forcefully defends “equal protection and freedom of marriage for two people of the same gender” in Article 1. However, advocates reacted with cautious optimism. [FULL STORY]
