An administrative appeal is to be filed against the Taipei City Government after a transnational same-sex couple’s attempt to register their marriage was rejected, the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights said yesterday.
Ting Tse-yen, 28, and his Macanese partner, Leong Chin Fei, 31, yesterday applied to register their marriage at the Zhongzheng District Household Registration Office, but their request was rejected due to Leong’s nationality, the alliance said.
The legal issue the couple are battling is the same faced by more than 200 other same-sex couples, Leong said.
Photo: CNA
“We are taking legal action [against the city government] not just for ourselves, but also for the more than 200 couples like us,” he said.
The couple consider themselves the lucky ones because Leong has been able to secure residency without a marriage certificate, he said, adding that some couples cannot even be together due to visa issues.
Although same-sex marriage was legalized on May 24, hundreds of same-sex couples like Ting and Leong are still unable to marry because one of them comes from a nation where same-sex marriage is not legal, alliance secretary-general Chien Chih-chieh (簡至潔) said.
Article 46 of the Act Governing the Choice of Law in Civil Matters Involving Foreign Elements (涉外民事法律適用法) stipulates that whether a marriage can be established depends on the national law of each involved party, attorney Daniel Chen (陳明彥) said.
Taiwanese can only marry a foreign same-sex partner if the latter comes from one of the 27 nations where same-sex marriage has been legalized, Chen said.
This undermines their rights to equality as defined in the Council of Grand Justices’ Interpretation No. 748 and guaranteed by the Constitution, he added.
Ting and Leong are the first of several couples who are working with the alliance to push for the legalization of all transnational same-sex marriages, attorney Victoria Hsu (許秀雯) said.
Three more transnational same-sex couples with slightly different legal issues also plan to file administrative appeals in collaboration with the alliance in the next two months, she said.
To legalize all transnational same-sex marriage, the government needs to announce that foreign laws which do not acknowledge same-sex marriage are not in line with the Constitution and therefore do not apply, she added.
“It does not necessarily require a law to be amended,” Hsu said.
Article 8 of the Act Governing the Choice of Law in Civil Matters Involving Foreign Elements stipulates that courts and government agencies can disregard certain foreign laws if they undermine public order or go against the good morals (boni mores) of society, she said.
Since the government legalized same-sex marriage in May, about 1,000 same-sex couples registered their marriages, Chien said.
“We fought hard to overcome the gender barrier and this time we will overcome the nationality barrier,” she said. “Our country cannot treat people differently and deprive them of the freedom to marry based on their nationality, that is not right.”
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
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
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
RSS