LGBTQIA+ Equality Taiwan Project #35247

Securing marriage equality in Taiwan

by Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights

Project Report | Mar 21, 2019
Post-Referendum Situations and Campaigns

By Chih-Chieh Chien | Secretary-general of TAPCPR

Dear donors,

Thank you for your support of marriage equality in Taiwan. Last year three referenda proposed by anti-LGBT+ groups passed the threshold of 25% of eligible voters. This result created a considerable amount of uncertainty in whether or not marriage equality, as demanded by Taiwan’s Grand Justices, will be implemented as originally expected on May 24, 2019.

The TAPCPR legal team has proceeded with litigation with the hope of invalidating the anti-LGBT+ referenda. Unfortunately, however, after 3 months of intensive court hearings, two cases on marriage equality closed against our favor this month (March 2019). Further appeal remains under consideration by our legal team; litigation over gender equality education is still in progress.

Facing this new post-referendum situation, our campaign continues and we carried out subsequent seminars throughout Taiwan to brief the public on the situation. We also organized trainings for local groups seeking ways to influence local politics. In the last 3 months, we have held 13 seminars, 2 two-day volunteer-training workshops and connected 7 local advocacy groups for the “Guardian of J. Y. Interpretation No. 748” rally on the evening of December 25, 2018.

The Enforcement Act of the Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 748 proposed by Taiwan’s Executive Yuan in February 2019 does not include the right to marry between international partners. In this case, the Taiwanese government will only recognize international marriages from the 26 countries that already allow same-sex marriage. However, there are many same-sex couples in Taiwan with foreign partners from Southeast Asia. This draft law is inhumane and shatters their hopes to stay in Taiwan and start a family. Therefore, we have started to work on these matters over the past 2 months. Aside from arranging a press conference, we also made frequent visits and addressed petitions to legislators, in order to highlight the plight of international same-sex couples to the Taiwanese government.

It still remains uncertain whether marriage equality will be justly implemented this May. We will continue dedicating ourselves to this just cause and will exhaust every measure we can. Thank you again for your concern and attention to marriage equality in Taiwan. Your support is vital to our work!

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Formal response to the draft bill by the Executive Yuan

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Dec 10, 2018
Thank you all for supporting marriage equality in Taiwan

By Chih-Chieh Chien | Secretary-general of TAPCPR

Dear benefactors,

Thank you all for your contributions to our cause which enable Taiwanese LGBTIQ community to safeguard marriage equality rights and gender equality education when the community is facing the crunch situation that the LGBTIQ human rights are threatened by the three referendum initiatives proposed by the anti-LGBTQ groups in Taiwan.

When the three anti-LGBTQ referendum proposals passed the Central Election Commission (CEC) review, Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights (TAPCPR) immediately filed administrative litigation for invalid referendums and has hired an attorney purposefully to oversee the litigation process. Although we haven’t been able to stop the execution of anti-LGBTQ referendums promptly, the legal actions we have undertaken still continue up to this day. Thereby the results of the referendums and their effects can still be made void in the future.

On the one hand, during the period of referendums, TAPCPR has been amassing evidence of illegal campaigning from the anti-LGBTQ camps; on the other, distributing pamphlets, flyers and nearly 500,000 free copies of leaflets to the public by our dedicated volunteers. In doing so, we hope tocommunicate to the public positive and correct information about the LGBTIQ communities and redress the consequences of disinformation.

Apart from the above-mentioned work, TAPCPR has also proactively launched a campaign of 50 street actions, calling on our volunteers to talk to the public one-on-one, or giving out LGBTIQ-friendly leaflets at stalls. We aim to change the societal attitudes towards the community through these concrete actions. On top of that we have also been giving over 30 talks all over Taiwan, training local volunteers and forming a syndicate of various LGBTIQ-friendly forces.

Much to our regret, because a massive budget injected from certain Christian churches has been mobilized by the anti-LGBTIQ groups to launch relentless online campaigns, spreading rumours in all major media channels while fuelling homophobic fears among the senior citizens and parents. On the day of voting, stories of law-breaking behaviour by the officials at the polling stations were heard; and we suspect that the vote count could have been tampered with. Throughout the process of referendums,the LGBTIQ community has been put at a disadvantageby the unbridgeable gap between the resources held by the two camps, resulting in passing the three anti-LGBTIQ proposals. The results no doubt would infringe the human rights of the LGBTIQ community. Meanwhile the referendums are posing a tangible threat to Taiwan’s constitutional democracy.

Even if the results of referendums have thrown a temporary spanner in the works of revising Civil Codes, blocking our way to realizing marriage equality, TAPCPR continues to monitor our Executive Yuan and the Parliament to stand firmly by the result of Constitutional Interpretation ruled by the Top Court Justices through litigation, lobbying the parliament and advocacy.

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