Taipei City to seek constitutional interpretation on gay marriage (update)

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/07/23
By: Christie Chen

Taipei, July 23 (CNA) The Taipei City government said Thursday that it is in the process of seeking a constitutional interpretation on whether Taiwan’s Civil Code violates the Constitution by restricting marriage to heterosexual couples.

In a statement, the city’s Department of Civil Affairs said it completed the documents for submission to the court July 2. The documents were approved by the city government on July 20 and will be sent to the Ministry of the Interior next week, Hong Jin-da (洪進達), a section chief at the department, told CNA.

Article 972 of the Civil Code states that “an agreement to marry shall be made by the male and the female parties in their own concord.”

The city government is seeking the opinion of the Justices of the Constitutional Court on whether that article and other marriage-related articles in the Civil Code violate articles in the Constitution that pertain to freedom and equality, Hong said.     [FULL  STORY]