Fridae

A year ago today, Australians voiced in favour of same-sex marriage with 61.6% responding in favour and close to 80% participation in a postal survey - and those voices were heard by politicians and from December 9th ’17, legislation now provides marriage equality in Australia.

In just over a week on 24th November, Taiwan will hold referendums on same-sex marriage and ‘homosexual related’ education in schools, with the possibility of becoming the first in Asia to introduce same-sex marriage equality legislation – although, Thailand is reported to be preparing to introduce legislation for a UK-style Civil Partnership by the end of this year.

For many in Taiwan, this has been a frustrating development as the Constitutional Court in May of last year declared that same-sex couples had the right to legally marry and set a two-year deadline for corresponding legalisation. However, in August, The Alliance for Next Generation’s Happiness, a Christian activist group, proposed a public vote on the issue to the Central Election Commission (CEC), saying a separate law would defend “family values”. This resulted in the upcoming public vote which LGBT activists, who have long campaigned for same-sex marriage equality, called “discriminatory” since it went against the 2017 Constitutional Court ruling that current laws violate the rights to freedom of marriage and equality.

The questions from the Christian activist group accepted into the public vote include one on whether marriage should be limited to ‘a bond between a man and a woman’ and one on whether there should be a separate law to grant same-sex couples the option of a civil ‘permanent union’.  A third LGBT-related question from the Christian activist group hopes to prevent the implementation of laws mandating the inclusion of information about homosexuality in sexual education classes at schools.  

Since the announcement of the referendums, activists in favour of same-sex marriage equality announced that they had secured sufficient signatures to submit their own questions to the CEC. These seek to impose on the legislature an obligation to amend the Civil Code to create de facto same-sex marriage equality and to secure the inclusion of sexual diversity within schools’ sexual education curriculum and head off Christian activists’ attempts to roll back LGBT-inclusive portions of Taiwan's Gender Equity Education Act, which would undermine protections for vulnerable youth disproportionately affected by bullying.  

The Human Rights Watch has stated that 'Fundamental human rights are at stake, and the public rhetoric has been corrosive’ with The Alliance for Next Generation’s Happiness stating that “The collapse of the family system will deal a huge blow to society.”

Clearly the stakes are high, with the referendums not only being a threat to same-sex marriage equality but potentially also other freedoms for the LGBT Community.

We hope that the Taiwanese will vote as did the Australians in overwhelming support of the fundamental rights of the LGBT Community -  and hopefully, by even more than 61.4% in support!