Almost two years after the Constitutional Court ruling in favor of gay couples and the establishment of relevant laws, the Legislation Yuan in Taiwan launched the second reading (for debates, article examination, and wording alternations) for three different drafts on gay marriage.
I'm not exactly sure about how deep I should be diving into this topic since the LGBTQ+ Acts in Taiwan could be traced back all the way to the 1980s, but needless to say, I am absolutely enthralled by the development, firstly because of the fact that this is something directly related to my rights, but also because this is a big step toward equality in general, one big step that made Taiwan the first country in Asia to legalize marriage between the same sex.
The law, now entitled The Enforcement Act of Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 748, will come into effect in three days from now (5/24). If not for the referendum conducted several months ago, we could have hoped for gay people using the Civil Code as heterosexual couples do, but the results we have is ideal in reality.
Now, where do we start? On May 24th, 2017, the highest Court in the Judicial Yuan ruled in favor of gay people after Qi Jia-Wei, the person dubbed the first gay in Taiwan out of the closet, successfully filed a Constitutional interpretation when his attempts of getting registered as a couple with his lover proved unfruitful. The Court stated that the majority of the judges are forward with the idea that it is the government's and the legislators' obligation to make sure that two people, regardless of their religion, race, gender, can get married. They gave a two-year buffer time for the Legislative Yuan to include this into the Taiwanese law system, after which if nothing was done, the gay couples would automatically be included in the Civil Law and would then be given all the rights a traditional couple would.
It was no hard to speculate how many debates, how many protests, and how many rallies have taken place in the given two years. The people against gay marriage consist mostly of those with more conservative thoughts. Numerous churches in Taiwan and the elderly communities alike, with several prominent politicians and entrepreneurs as well, loudly berated the court ruling, while the pro-gay marriage people, mostly being made up of gay people and their supportive parents or those who just believe that love has no boundaries are speaking at equal volumes and trying to spread the importance of such law. Fast forward to the referendum voting. On November 24th, a referendum was cast. Among other controversial issues like whether to reactivate nuclear power plants and which name do we want to use for our country at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, there were five questions regarding how the laws about homosexual couples should be laid down. Two of them were endorsed by those for gay marriage, and the other three not. The questions are basically about whether gay couples should also refer to the intimate and exclusive bond as marriage or civil union. It was later proved to have two radically different outcomes, as one could grant the right for gay couples to get married using the regulations and conditions on the Civil Law, while the other needs citing from a special law.
In the referendum, however, we lost. With a staggering seven million votes against gay marriage in the Civil Code, we were met with some setback. But a lot of us didn't give up just yet. The Executive Yuan dished out a special law draft "The Enforcement Act of Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 748" which covers a lot of the rights that would maximize the rights bestowed upon the gay couples, including the basic rights like bequeathing from the other half and protection of the exclusiveness of the relationship as well as the right to adopt the other half's children. Two legislators with Christian backgrounds respectively countered with their own versions of proposals which the right to adoption of the other half's child was removed. One even proposed the "anti-marriage forgery" rule, in which a family member, a social worker, or someone from the police can issue a nullification of the relationship between two gay people if they believe they aren't having an intimate or exclusive relationship. Even though this drafted regulation was suggested to be taken out of discussion due to a severe violation of one's privacy very soon, I still beat myself up for misjudging the intention behind this law for the first instant. When I realized that this would mean all the people mentioned above will make you and your partner under surveillance, I was first infuriated, but then the stark repulsion for the law morphed into disappointment and shame for myself, not being able to tell the intention behind a simple rule, for that is someone I have long dreaded of becoming: one that needs the opinions or reminders of the others to form his own. I hate not being able to figure out things on my own, and the fear is still there.
But let's get back to the story.
May the 17th became a monumental day in Taiwanese equality because the Legislative Yuan held the voting that day. With the majority of the legislators in agreement with the Executive Yuan version, the law for gay marriage is decided upon and protected. It was a day of pouring rain. Yet people from both sides held out their umbrellas and their resolution at the doorstep of the Legislative Yuan, awaiting the results of the voting; The results were promising.
Today gay couples can get married. Though there is still the debate on whether setting a special law is something fair for the people who wish not to be treated specially. Still, there are people who, with or without religious beliefs, against the concept of two people of the same sex sharing a household. The idea is still alien to them, and this is what we people, gay or not, have to work on. We should spread our friendliness, telling the world that there is nothing wrong and nothing of notoriety to pose as a threat to society. There are a lot of discussions between both sides that have been overlooked in the past, and the rift between people regarding this issue is the result. It a giant first step for gay rights, but are still quite some steps in between.
