A Taiwanese-Macanese gay couple tied the knot in Taipei yesterday after winning a landmark legal case as they called for Taiwan to amend its laws to allow same-sex marriages with all foreigners.
Taiwan is seen as leading the LGBTQ rights movement in Asia, as it became the first Asian country to legalise same-sex marriages in 2019. However, restrictions do not allow Taiwanese to marry foreigners from countries where same-sex unions are not legally recognized.
Ting Tse-yan (丁則言) and his partner, Guzifer Leong (梁展輝), from Macau, challenged that restriction in court earlier this year and won, allowing them to officially register their marriage.
Photo: CNA
However, the ruling applies only to their marriage, and other same-sex couples wanting to marry continue to face restrictions and legal challenges.
“This is an initial success,” the 29-year-old Ting said. “Other international couples still can’t marry and we call for full recognition.”
“We hope our registration today will let the government see that marriage equality has yet to be realized,” said Leong, 33.
The couple were able to wed because a court in May ordered a government office to record their marriage, overturning the office’s 2019 rejection of their registration.
“We’ve waited for two years and finally we can get married,” Ting said after the registration, showing his new ID card with his spouse’s name on it.
The couple have cofounded a group to help more than 100 Taiwanese whose partners are from countries where same-sex marriage is not legal, including China, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam.
“Marriage is a basic human right and it’s unimaginable that there is discriminatory treatment because one’s partner comes from a certain country,” the couple’s lawyer, Victoria Hsu (許秀雯), said. “Would any heterosexual citizens accept a situation in which they were allowed to wed an American but not a Japanese?”
Hsu’s advocacy group, the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights, has appealed to the Control Yuan to look into the issue, she said.
Taiwan is home to a thriving LGBTQ community, and a record 200,000 people attended a Pride march in Taipei in 2019 to celebrate the legalisation of same-sex marriage. Nearly 6,000 same-sex couples have wed since then.
That law came about after Taiwan’s top court ruled that denying same-sex couples the right to marry was discriminatory and unconstitutional.
The issue proved to be divisive, and the law contains restrictions pushed for by conservatives, including limited adoption rights.
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
DEMAND: The government should enact regulations in line with Austria and Germany to incorporate vegan nutrition into school meals, an advocate said More than 1,000 people yesterday marched in Taipei to promote veganism, calling for legislation to incorporate vegan diets into school lunches and the national net zero emissions program. Participants gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building for the march, which was organized by the Vegan Action Network (VAN). Former ambassador to Chad Chiu Chung-jen (邱仲仁), actor Yankee Yang (楊子儀) and actress Cindy Lien (連俞涵) attended the event. VAN member Marianne Chao (趙梅君) said that the campaign aimed to urge the government to promote vegan diets across schools and government agencies via legislation and national policies, which would help build
RSS