STOP WAITING:It is going to take time to decide how changes to the Civil Code are to be handled, but there is no need to wait for them, the Executive Yuan said
Taipei Times
Date: Jun 01, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter
The Cabinet plans to ask all local governments to recognize household registrations
Executive Yuan Secretary-General Chen Mei-ling yesterday speaks at a news conference in Taipei about the Council of Grand Justices’ constitutional interpretation in support of same-sex marriage. Photo: CNA
by same-sex couples before same-sex marriage is fully legalized, even as the Executive Yuan remains undecided on how to legalize such marriages.
Following the Council of Grand Justices’ landmark ruling last week that a ban on same-sex marriage in the Civil Code is unconstitutional, the Executive Yuan has formed an interministerial task force to study how many laws would be affected by the legalization of same-sex marriage and what modifications are required to the legal definition of kinship and inheritance, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶) said yesterday.
The task force cannot decide how same-sex marriage should be legalized — by amending the Civil Code, by establishing a special section of the Civil Code or by creating a special law — until it conducts further assessments, Chen said.
“I cannot set a timetable [for proposing legislation], but we understand that the Legislative Yuan is not willing to wait and will pressure us,” she said.
“If there are local governments that refuse to comply — which they are legally entitled to do, as household registration is within local governments’ authority — I will ask the Ministry of the Interior to accept household registration for same-sex partners,” she said. [FULL STORY]
