Taiwan becomes first Asian country to create same-sex marriage bill

Taiwan has become the first Asian country to create a same-sex marriage bill. Same-sex couples will be able to wed, inherit and adopt if it passes. Taiwan’s top court in 2017 set a two-year deadline after it said same-sex couples had the right to legally marry.

Taiwan’s cabinet has issued its draft for the legislation which will be voted on and most likely  passed by parliament. The debate over the bill will likely start after 1 March and must be passed before the two-year deadline on 24 May. If it is not passed before then it will automatically become law.

The DPP, the main party, has said it will vote en mass in favor of the bill.

However, some activists are not happy because there is debate around the name of the legislation. The bill may be passed as a ‘co-habitation’ agreement, instead of marriage. Jennifer Lu, leading marriage equality advocate in Taiwan, told Gay Star News: ‘The civil code amendment is our first preference for how we wanted to achieve marriage equality and we need to respect the choice of referendum.

‘LGBT groups in Taiwan are concerned is if the (proposed) bill is constitutional or not’ ‘We think the constitution is the bottom line and according to the resources we have right now, that is not the perfect version.

‘In the content of the bill from our understanding is there there will be a reference to marriage and the title of the bill is an interesting way that the other side (anti-marriage equality advocates) wants to oppose. ‘The opposition has a concern over the name of the bill, they don’t want the word marriage in it.’

She added: ‘But now we need to respect the result of the referendums, we could accept the new separate law, as long as it’s constitutional.’

The full draft will be available to the public tomorrow.

Source: Gay Star News