Taiwan: Future on hold for gay couples
After more than three decades together, Wang Tien-ming and Ho Hsiang decided to tie the knot when Taiwan’s top court ruled last year that same-sex marriage must be legalised.
But those wedding plans are on hold after conservative groups won a referendum battle over equal marriage which couples fear could water down their newly won rights.
The original court decision in May 2017 made Taiwan the first place in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage - it ruled the change must be implemented within two years and sparked a wave of optimism in the LGBT community.
But almost 18 months have already passed as the government drags its feet in the face of conservative opposition.
A referendum on whether marriage should only be recognised as between a man and a woman in Taiwan’s civil code won more than seven million votes on Saturday, as did another calling for same-sex unions to be regulated under a separate law.
Gay rights activists had proposed that the civil code should give same-sex couples equal marriage rights, but only garnered three million votes.
Ho said that after the original court ruling, he believed he and Wang would be granted rights given to heterosexual married partners.
Wang, 57, is also the main carer for Ho, 75, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease. “I want to get married because I want to say to the world: ‘I don’t want to be deprived of what is my basic right’,” Wang said.
Pro-gay marriage campaigners now worry that their newly won rights will be weakened.
The court did not specify how it wanted gay marriage to be brought in, leaving room for conservative groups to call for separate regulations. Taiwan’s government has not yet responded to the referendum result.