About 80 lesbian couples tied the knot in Taiwan’s biggest same-sex “wedding party,” with organizers saying yesterday they hoped Taiwan would become the first place in Asia to legalize gay marriage.
Many of the couples donned white dresses and veils for the “Barbie and Barbie’s wedding,” which was held overnight in downtown Taipei, attracting about 1,000 visitors, including friends, relatives and curious onlookers.
“I feel very hopeful that Taiwan will legalize same-sex marriage soon,” said one of the brides, 32-year-old stylist Celine Chen, who plans a honeymoon in New York, which in June became the sixth US state to legalize gay marriage.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
Even though same-sex unions are not allowed in Taiwan, the ceremonies — which had no legal force — went on smoothly without police interference or protests.
Many of the couples kissed, hugged and posed for photographs while receiving an unofficial certificate from the organizers that stated they were now “united in holy matrimony.”
The event climaxed with a couple exchanging rings and saying “I do” amid roaring cheers from the crowd. However, in a brief moment of sadness, some of the participants acknowledged that the marriages were not bona fide.
“The wedding party is fun, but it’s not real,” said Coral Huang, who has been with her partner for eight years and intends to go to Europe to wed legally. “Getting a genuine marriage certificate is very meaningful as it shows that we are being recognized and accepted.”
Gay marriage is not legal anywhere in Asia and although Nepal’s Supreme Court has approved it, no legislation has been passed in Kathmandu to put the ruling into effect.
Taiwan is becoming more open-minded toward its homosexual population and the country’s gay rights groups last year said they had hosted Asia’s biggest gay pride parade, with a turnout of 30,000 from at home and abroad.
In a 2008 opinion poll by the International Social Survey Programme, a global network dedicated to social science research, 17.5 percent of Taiwanese participants said that homosexual behavior was “not wrong at all.”
While significantly lower than the US, where 32.3 percent held that view, it was much higher than the 5.5 percent in Japan and 4.4 percent in the Philippines.
The Cabinet in 2003 drafted a controversial bill to legalize same-sex marriages and allow homosexual couples to adopt children, but President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has said public consensus was needed before the government can move ahead with the law.
Some couples remained pessimistic the government would go through with the legislation.
“It is too difficult now as the Taiwanese culture and customs are still more conservative,” said Jessica, a kindergarten teacher who declined to give her last name and who keeps her sexual orientation from her colleagues.
Activists also noted that legalizing gay marriage is unlikely to figure on Taiwan’s political agenda in the near future.
“Politicians say they respect same-sex unions and take it seriously as a human rights issue, but we don’t see them take any actions,” said Chen Pin-ying (陳品穎), executive chief editor of Lez’s Meeting Magazine, which hosted the party.
“This is the political reality as gays are a minority group,” Chen said.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
RSS