On Thursday, Taiwan’s interior ministry informed local authorities that couples with non-Taiwanese partners from jurisdictions that do not allow same-sex marriage, including Hong Kong and Macao, can now wed in Taiwan.
The decision is among the last acts of Premier Su Tseng-chang, a political grandee from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party who tendered his resignation to President Tsai Ing-wen the same day. The president’s spokesperson said a cabinet reshuffle is underway over the Lunar New Year.
The move comes more than three and a half years after Tsai’s government legalised same-sex marriage in 2019, albeit with limitations on transnational partners. Since then, international couples have been fighting for their marriage rights, seeking redress in administrative courts in Taiwan.
Taiwan is the only jurisdiction in Asia or the Chinese-speaking world to legalise homosexual matrimony, Taiwan’s championing of LGBTQ rights stands in stark contrast to its neighbours. Last August, Singapore decriminalised gay sex but blocked the path toward same-sex marriage. Under President Xi Jinping, China in 2016 forbade the portrayal of homosexual relationships on TV and in 2021 did the same for “effeminate” men. In the region, only Thailand is inching toward accepting same-sex civil unions.
In a letter addressed to local governments seen by Nikkei Asia, Taiwan’s interior ministry said that “same-sex marriage is already part of the public order in Taiwan,” and that the restrictions imposed on cross-national couples “harm our country’s public order and good customs, and endanger the stability of our country’s general private life.”
However, partners from China, other than those from Hong Kong and Macao, will not be able wed under the existing amendment because citizens of mainland China are governed under a different set of regulations in Taiwan.
A joint statement by several advocacy groups, including the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights, a Taipei-based non-profit organisation, thanked Premier Su for the decision.
Su “resisted the social pressure after the referendum four years ago, and facilitated the passage of the same-sex marriage legislation. Today, he once again demonstrated his determination to support equal rights for gays and lesbians, and returned the right to marry to transnational same-sex couples,” the statement said.
In a November 2018 referendum, a majority of Taiwanese voters said no to changing the “one man, one woman” definition of marriage outlined in the civil code to allow for same-sex couples. The plebiscite result was binding for only two years. A year before the vote, Taiwan’s Constitutional Court mandated the legalisation of homosexual matrimony, a ruling enforced by the DPP government.
Referring to the fact that gay couples involving citizens of mainland China are still not eligible to tie the knot in Taiwan, the statement noted: “We regret that same-sex couples across the [Taiwan] Strait cannot register for marriage after this wave of reforms. At the same time, we understand that partners in different political and public sectors have made great efforts to get to this point today.”
Since 2019, numerous couples affected by the now-lifted restriction have challenged Taiwan’s denial of their right to wed in court.
“As a result, from 2019 to 2022, there were five court rulings allowing transnational same-sex couples to register [their] marriages. The judges’ decisions imply that taking marriage rights from transnational same-sex couples [is] illegal and against constitutional principles,” said former Amnesty International staffer Annie Huang in an analysis published in January.