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© Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Taiwan approves same-sex marriage in first for Asia
TAIPEI, Taiwan©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
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Bintaro
Congratulations !
I wonder how Japan will react.
Haaa Nemui
I'm wondering even more how China will react.
Serrano
China will rescind this when they take over Taiwan.
Wakarimasen
I thought I heard that a referendum or opinion poll or similar of Taiwanese population were not in favour of this. wonder how much demand there is for SSM.
Jimizo
I’m not so sure. This could even shame them into moving forward on this issue. China actually isn’t as bad as some countries on the treatment of LGBT people.
taj
Congratulations, Taiwan! I loved you already, and now I admire you that little bit more!
towingtheline
A great victory for equality. Congrats to the the Taiwanese BLT community.
Strangerland
Nice. Welcome to the modern age Taiwan.
Rot10
Somewhere out there, Tu'er Shen must be smiling. Congratulations Taiwan!
Kestrel
LGBTQAI+ victory Taiwan,
Chip Star
Good on Taiwan. When will the rest of Asia join the new millennia?
tinawatanabe
China would take advantage of this law to invade Taiwan with Chinese immigrants who pretend to be gays.
xin xin
Much work still to be done to instill tolerance, sense of fairness and understanding, in Taiwan, as elsewhere.
seadog538
While some Asian countries are dragging their heels on this issue, they aren't anywhere near as tardy as Islamic countries all of which seem to be intransigent on the issue.
CrazyJoe
Not all the news in the world is bad. In some places, love is still triumphing.
kiwiboy
In May 2017, the Constitutional Court ruled that same-sex couples have the right to marry, and that the Legislative Yuan must amend the laws to align with the constitution within 2 years. That ruling upset the anti-gay marriage camps who came out in force.
Also in 2017 the Referendum Act was reformed, making it easier to get questions on the election ballots. Previously, signatures from 5% of the electorate were needed, but now only 1% were needed - about 280,000 signatures. This meant in the 2018 election, 10 referendum questions appeared on the ballots - each spearheaded by a group with their own agenda.
5 of the 10 questions regarded gay marriage or gender equality etc. - most spearheaded by anti-gay groups. The results for the gay marriage questions were considered poor. Possibly due to their wording, or larger turn-outs of older voters. You can see more here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Taiwanese_referendum
However those questions were not binding, whereas the Constitutional Court's ruling still stood. Today we saw that implemented.
Good on Taiwan!! May Japan be next!
Luddite
Good news.
Ganbare Japan!
I dont know why people are talking of Japan. Taiwan and Japan, seperate custom, history and culture. Japan is far, far older and has a culture thats lasted. Japanese are reluctant to change laws that have worked good. Furthermore, such a change is not productive since Japan needs more children.
Jimizo
Come on, sport. No need to troll and insert more grammatical mistakes than usual.
Just give Taiwan some credit.
Ganbare Japan!
@ Jimizo- yes, good for Taiwan.
Pukey2
Congratulations, Taiwan!
I must say, the results of the referendum were very, very suspicious. Polls even before the topic of a referendum was bought up showed consistently that the majority were fine with SSM. The referendum brought out the nasty Christian extremists, along with a lot of help from American evangelicals.
lucabrasi
@Jim
You’re forgetting that Canberra has chosen to recognise mainland China.
Difficult for downunder cobbers to show any kind of open support for Taiwan....
gokai_wo_maneku
Totally gay gokai is optimistic that Japan will do the same! A majority of people now support it. (Don't know when...)
Strangerland
I’m thinking it will still take another 5-10 years. But it’s coming.
Eppee
Great move for Taiwan ! A reference in Asia.
... because JapanToday...
FizzBit
Taiwan has lost its moral compass. What a mistake. China is laughing.
Bintaro
Because there are LGBT people in Japan too.
Because Japan is in Asia, and people tend to watch what their neighbors do.
LOL How will preventing gay people from getting married result in more children being born ?
Kestrel
@seadog,
hmmm, “intransigent”. Fair to say thats putting it mildly, given that gay people in those nations are stoned to death, thrown off buildings, beheaded or hanged from cranes just for being gay. Yep, gay marriage there is going to, er, take a while.