A coalition of LGBT rights groups yesterday urged Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) to withdraw his draft bill on same-sex families, which they said could undermine the legalization of same-sex marriage.
The bill is “homophobic” and “basically offers zero protection for same-sex families,” Taiwan LGBT Family Rights Advocacy vice president Tsai Shang-wen (蔡尚文) said at a rally outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
The group, along with the Awakening Foundation, Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association and other groups, gathered a proposal Lai has titled “The enforcement act of Referendum No. 12.”
Photo: Su Fun-her, Taipei Times
The bill, which was originally proposed by groups opposing same-sex marriage, said that two adults of the same sex can register as one family and share part of their assets through an agreement.
However, they would only inherit portions of their partner’s assets outside the legitime (legally mandated share for relatives) and a will would be needed if one spouse wishes to bequeath more than half of their assets outside the legitime to their partner.
If one spouse has children, the other could only be their guardian until they turn 18, the proposal says.
Conservative groups hope that the bill can replace “The enforcement act of Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 748” proposed by the Cabinet last month, which would give same-sex couples similar rights to heterosexual couples.
The enforcement act of Referendum No. 12” has so far received support from more than 20 legislators and is to be reviewed at the Legislative Yuan today.
“We understand that some members of the public and legislators might be afraid of and want to exclude gay people because they do not understand them,” Tsai said. “However, same-sex couples are not seeking privileges — all they want is the same rights as others.”
Jovi, who is raising a daughter with a female partner, said that the inability to marry has led to great inconvenience and unnecessary pain for the couple.
When her daughter was hospitalized for a pseudomonas aeruginosa infection last year, her partner could not sign the surgery agreement because she was not the girl’s legal parent, she said.
“Everything the draft bill [“The enforcement act of Referendum No. 12”] says we have already done. It does not offer anything new. Why do we need it?” she asked.
The bill is “unfair, unjust and discriminating,” she added.
Lai said he would respect the legislators who have signed in support of the proposal would “follow the legislative procedures and let the Legislative Yuan vote on it.”
Additional reporting by CNA
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
RSS