Taiwan unveils Asia’s first ever draft law on same-sex marriage

TAIPEI: Taiwan’s ruling party unveiled its latest attempt to create Asia’s first gay marriage law on Thursday, a bill offering samesex couples “permanent unions” as well as limited adoption rights, despite stiff opposition from conservatives.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has had a stuttering and troubled journey towards delivering on their 2016 election promise to grant same-sex couples equal marriage rights.

In November, conservatives won a referendum against revis- ing the island’s civil code to allow gay marriage, in a blow to President Tsai Ing Wen’s party and a stark illustration of the social divide caused by the issue.

The referendum came after Taiwan’s constitutional court voted to legalise gay marriage in 2017 - the first place in Asia to do so - arguing that denying samesex couples marriage rights was unconstitutional. The court ordered the government to amend the law by May 24, 2019 but didn’t specify how it wanted gay marriage to be brought in.

The bill published by the cabinet is the Tsai administration’s attempt to square that circle - a new law that meets the court’s demands while trying to respect the referendum result by not altering the civil code which currently defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

The draft law released by the justice ministry proposes allowing “two persons of the same sex to create a permanent union of intimate and exclusive nature for the committed purpose of managing a life together”.

Gay couples will be allowed to adopt the biological children of their partner while both parties are financially responsible for each other and are entitled to inheritance rights.