Taiwan yesterday became the first Asian nation to legalize same-sex marriage after lawmakers passed the Enforcement Act of Judicial Yuan Constitutional Interpretation No. 748 (司法院釋字第748號解釋施行法).
Under the act, same-sex couples would be able to become legally married from Friday next week to meet a two-year deadline stipulated in Constitutional Interpretation No. 748, which was handed down by the Council of Grand Justices on May 24, 2017.
The Legislative Yuan yesterday held an article-by-article vote after cross-caucus talks on Tuesday on three versions of the legislation were inconclusive.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The vote went according to a motion tendered yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus, which has the legislative majority, to amend the Executive Yuan’s version of the bill proposed in February.
The two other bills — submitted by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) on behalf of the Happiness of the Next Generation Alliance and DPP Legislator Lin Tai-hua (林岱樺) on behalf of HTC Corp (宏達電) chairwoman Cher Wang’s (王雪紅) Faith, Hope and Love Foundation — were not put to a vote, as the DPP’s version was the first to be voted on and secured a majority.
Article 1 of the Cabinet’s version reads: “This act was formulated to enable two persons of the same sex to form a permanent bond that is intimate and exclusive for the purpose of managing a life together, thereby ensuring that the right to marriage is equal and protected.”
However, the DPP caucus amended the article to say: “This act was formulated to carry out Constitutional Interpretation No. 748.”
It also amended Article 2 of the Cabinet’s version, which reads: “Same-sex marriage refers to two persons of the same sex forming a permanent bond that is intimate and exclusive for the purpose of managing a life together,” removing the definition of “same-sex marriage” and rewording it to say that two people of the same sex may form a permanent bond that is intimate and exclusive for the purpose of managing a life together.
The DPP caucus added the word “marriage” to Article 4, which stipulates that after signing a certificate, which must also bear the signatures of two witnesses, two people of the same sex may register “their marriage” at a household registration office.
The changes were proposed in the hope of settling a dispute over certain phrasing in the Cabinet’s version, such as “same-sex marriage,” Executive Yuan spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka said on Thursday following a meeting between Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and DPP lawmakers.
People must be at least 18 years old to get married or, in the case of minors, obtain the consent of their legal guardian, the act says.
People may not marry their direct or collateral relatives within four degrees of consanguinity, unless they are collateral relatives through marriage who are not within three degrees of kinship, it says.
If a member of a same-sex couple is the biological parent of their child, their spouse may adopt the child, in which case adoption rules stipulated in the Civil Code would apply, the act says.
In the case of a divorce, the rules stipulated in the Civil Code regarding the division of assets, compensation and determination of child custody would apply, it says.
Several DPP legislators who have taken a conservative stance on same-sex marriage were absent from the legislative session yesterday, including Huang Kuo-shu (黃國書), Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) and Hung Chun-yi (洪宗熠).
Meanwhile, KMT lawmakers who have openly supported same-sex marriage voted in favor of some of the key DPP amendments.
KMT legislators Lin Wei-chou (林為洲), Jason Hsu (許毓仁), Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) and Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) voted for the DPP’s version of Article 2.
The DPP’s version of Article 4 received the backing of Chiang, Jason Hsu, Hsu Shu-hua, Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀), Ko Chih-en (柯志恩), Arthur Chen (陳宜民) and Lin Yi-hua (林奕華).
Loud cheering broke out from a crowd, estimated at more than 40,000 people, awaiting the result of the voting outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei when the legislation passed its third reading at 3:28pm.
In Constitutional Interpretation No. 748, the Council of Grand Justices declared the lack of language in the Civil Code to guarantee the right of same-sex couples to wed unconstitutional and required that a law or amendment be introduced to legalize same-sex marriage within two years.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS