Supporters and opponents of a referendum on amending the Civil Code to legalize same-sex marriage on Thursday staked out their positions in a televised forum ahead of the vote on Saturday next week.
New Power Party Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) and Tseng Pin-chieh (曾品傑), a professor at National Chung Cheng University’s College of Law, presented opposing views on the referendum, which is to ask voters if they agree to amend the Civil Code to guarantee the marriage rights of same-sex couples.
The code defines marriage as between a man and a woman, but Huang, a proponent of the referendum, said that social ethics would not be affected if it is amended to cover same-sex couples.
Enacting a separate law to guarantee their rights, as is advocated by anti-LGBT rights forces, cannot confer marriage equality rights promised by the Council of Grand Justices’ Constitutional Interpretation No. 748, he said.
The court ruled that provisions in the code that exclude marriage between people of the same sex violate people’s freedom of marriage and their right to equality as guaranteed by Articles 22 and 7 of the Constitution respectively.
Huang said that because the code is the main law governing family and marriage, it should be used to protect same-sex marriage rights.
He also disagreed with his opponents’ claim that amending the code would be too complicated, saying it would only require changing five articles.
Establishing a separate act would be far more complicated and run the risk of missing important details, he added.
Tseng argued that the interpretation did not specifically state that Part IV of the Civil Code that covers family was unconstitutional.
Instead, it found that the law fails to protect the right of gay and lesbian people to live together, and therefore a separate act is needed to complement the Civil Code, he said.
The code governs marriage and family relationships based on the premise of unions between a man and a woman in ways that cannot be applied to same-sex marriage, Tseng said.
That includes the presumption of legitimacy, which states that the husband of a woman is the father of the child to whom she gives birth, he said.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
RSS