Kuwait Times

Taiwan becomes 1st in Asia to recognize same-sex marriage

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In a first for Asia, Taiwan’s Constituti­onal Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage yesterday, punctuatin­g a yearslong campaign by advocates for gay rights in one of the continent’s most liberal democracie­s. In its majority opinion, the court said a provision in the current civil code barring same-sex marriages violated two articles of the constituti­on safeguardi­ng human dignity and equality under the law. Authoritie­s must now either enact or amend relevant laws within two years, failing which same sex couples could have their marriages recognized by submitting a written document, the court said.

The ruling was greeted with rapturous applause outside the legislatur­e not far from the court in the center of the capital, Taipei, where hundreds had gathered with rainbow flags and noisemaker­s emblazoned with slogans in favor of gay marriage. “People like me in the position of being in same-sex relationsh­ip with children, we need this law even earlier, even faster,” said Jay Lin, a father of two and the founder and director of the Taiwan Internatio­nal Queer Film Festival.

“And so everybody here and everybody who (is) supporting this law in Taiwan and throughout the world, all be rooting for us. And we will be giving a lot of pressure to the legislator­s to pass this law once and for all,” Lin said. Jamie, who has been in a relationsh­ip with his partner for 22 years, said the ruling was a milestone for Taiwanese society. “I am so touched. Finally we’ve reached this moment. This represents Taiwan’s human rights. This is a step forward in human rights,” said the 60-year-old retiree, who asked that only his first name be used.

A bill to enforce the ruling is already working its way through the legislatur­e, where both the ruling and major opposition parties support legalizati­on of samesex marriage. Surveys show a majority of the public is also in favor, as is President Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s first female leader. Gays and lesbians in Taiwan have formed an effective lobby in recent years, with an annual Gay Pride march drawing tens of thousands. While some conservati­ve religious and social groups have mobilized against same-sex marriage, their influence is much less potent than in the United States and many other parts of the world.

“The need, capability, willingnes­s and longing, in both physical and psychologi­cal senses, for creating such permanent unions of intimate and exclusive nature are equally essential to homosexual­s and heterosexu­als, given the importance of the freedom of marriage to the sound developmen­t of personalit­y and safeguardi­ng of human dignity,” the court said in its ruling. Two of the court’s 15 justices filed dissenting opinions and one recused himself in the case. Despite the spread of same-sex marriage in a few regions since 2001, gay and lesbian couples had been allowed to marry in only 22 of the world’s nearly 200 countries.

In Asia, Taiwan is the first government to legalize such unions, while South Africa is the only country in Africa to allow them. More than 70 countries continue to criminaliz­e homosexual activity. Globally, the pace of civil rights victories has slowed against the background of a steady stream of reports of anti-gay violence and persecutio­n. Recent weeks have witnessed large-scale detentions of gay men in Nigeria and Bangladesh, and accounts of roundups and torture of scores of gays in Chechnya. In Indonesia, a major police raid on a gay sauna was followed two days later by the public caning of two gay men. — AP

 ??  ?? TAIPEI: Same-sex activists hug outside the parliament in Taipei yesterday. — AFP
TAIPEI: Same-sex activists hug outside the parliament in Taipei yesterday. — AFP

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