The News Lens
Date: 2019/05/18
By: Cat Thomas
Photo Credit: CNA
On the ground at the Legislative Yuan as Taiwan becomes the first country in Asia to approve same-sex marriage.
With Taiwan set to vote on same-sex marriage Friday the Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan (MECT) organized a rally around the Legislative Yuan complete with giant video screens to livestream the action from the Chamber – they had booked all available streets around the building to hold their projected crowd of 10-20 thousand. The News Lens International was on the ground to experience history being made as Taiwan became the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage.
Walking up Jinan road to the Legislative Yuan at around 8 a.m. I spotted a small group of around 10 anti-marriage protestors looking rather deflated. They’d turned up early with their banner, hoping to disrupt the pro-equality rally and now the police were dutifully keeping them from entering into the area. And that was the last anti-marriage equality activist I saw for the rest of the day. From eyewitness reports it seems that few who had responded to the mobilization call had given up and dissipated by 9 a.m.. The marriage equality crowd on the other hand almost quadrupled expected attendance with 40,000 supporters gathering over the course of the day – a working day no less.
As I made my way through round the back of the Legislative Yuan I ran into Rev. Elias Tseng (曾恕敏), of the Lighthouse Presbyterian church (同光同志長老教會), an LGBT+ church and Taiwan’s first openly gay pastor who said “I came here to support the same-sex equal marriage …I hope today we will pass the law.” It felt like a nice start to the day and the rally hadn’t even kicked off.
Over by the main stage for the rally (which was set up on Qingdao Road directly under the bridge that crosses between buildings in the Legislative Yuan) the crowds were already starting form. The rally kicked off at 8:30 a.m. with a series of photo ops and despite the damp weather spirits seemed cautiously high. (The Legislative session was scheduled to start at 9 a.m., however, as is customary the session opens with an open floor for other business which was not being streamed). Outside the mood at the rally was building up as videos were played and the numbers kept arriving. By 9 or so new arrivals were directed to the other side of the Legislative Yuan as the Qingdao road site and area in front of the Legislative Yuan was already at capacity. Supporters had taken advantage of coaches laid on by MECT from most of the major cities around Taiwan and it became clear that the expected numbers would be exceeded. [FULL STORY]
