When did taiwan legalise gay marriage
Taiwan’s gay marriage rule victory not an obvious win for its President
Taiwan recently made history by becoming the first country in Asia to legalise marriages between same-sex couples. On May 24, 526 couples throughout Taiwan registered the continent’s first homosexual unions. It’s a stunning victory for Taiwan’s LGBTQ society, which had fought a protracted political battle to secure their constitutional rights after the nation’s high court previously ruled in their favor.
There is growing concern, however, that the new rule could become a flashpoint in Taiwan’s January 2020 presidential election, in which the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) is searching to dethrone President Tsai Ing-wen and her ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Tsai publicly backed the law, passed on 17 May, commemorating its passage by tweeting:
The LGBTQ group supported and welcomed the law, but it has not entirely forgiven Tsai for her shortcoming to act after the high court first ruled in 2017 that banning unions between homosexual couples was unconstitutional. The court gave Taiwan’s legislature two years to extract laws restricting marriages to heterosexual couples, after which it wou
Written by Mei-Nu Yu and Yiching Yang.
Image credit: Legalize Gay Marriage by Marek Kubica/Flickr, license CC BY-SA 2.0
On 17 May 2019, Taiwan passed the gay marriage bill, becoming the first Asian country to legalise same-sex marriage. In doing this, it became the only country in the world to exposure three different pathways in the fight for marriage equality: Our Grand Justices made the Interpretation in 2017, we held a referendum in 2018 and, finally, the Legislative Yuan passed the law in May.
Same-sex marriage over the past 60 years
Homosexuals own long been a part of Taiwanese society but have been excluded from family life through discrimination and ignorance. While this situation is unfair and in violation of human rights, there have been attempts to change it. In 1958 a sapphic couple inquired with the notary public office of court about the possibility of having a civil marriage. In 1986, a gay couple requested Taipei District Court for a civil marriage and filed a petition to the Legislative Yuan. In 2000, they unsuccessfully requested the Grand Justices of the Judicial Yuan for interpretation.
A bill on “the Human Rights Basic Law”, passed by the
Marriage Equality Around the World
The Human Rights Campaign tracks developments in the legal recognition of same-sex marriage around the earth. Working through a worldwide network of HRC global alumni and partners, we lift up the voices of society, national and regional advocates and divide tools, resources, and lessons learned to empower movements for marriage equality.
Current State of Marriage Equality
There are currently 38 countries where same-sex marriage is legal: Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the Joined Kingdom, the Merged States of America and Uruguay.
These countries have legalized marriage equality through both legislation and court decisions.
Countries that Legalized Marriage Equality in 2025
Liechtenstein: On May 16, 2024, Liechtenstein's government passed a bill in favor of marriage equality. The law went into effect January 1, 2025.
Taipei, May 17 (CNA) Taiwan made history Friday as the first country in Asia to legalize queer marriage, after most lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and a few from the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) voted to pass a Cabinet-sponsored bill that gives homosexual couples the right to get married.
The 27-article bill, titled Enforcement Act of Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 748, cleared the legislative floor at 3:30 p.m. Friday against the backdrop of loud cheers from tens of thousands of gay marriage supporters gathered outside the Legislative Yuan.
DPP Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女), a longtime champion of gay rights, expressed gratitude to her colleagues at the Legislature and other same-sex marriage supporters, saying that their efforts acquire helped "let the rainbow rise."
The new law will take effect May 24, allowing two persons of the same gender, aged 18 or older, to register a marriage, with at least two witnesses signing the registration document.
Either partner in the marriage will be allowed to adopt the biological children of the other, under the law. However, non-biological children who had been adopted by one companion before the marriage cannot be
Taiwan’s parliament approves same-sex marriage legislation
Taiwan‘s parliament has legalised same-sex marriage in a landmark vote that made the self-ruled island the first in Asia to adopt such legislation.
The lawmakers comfortably passed a regulation on Friday, allowing lgbtq+ couples to form “exclusive permanent unions” and a second clause that would let them apply for a “marriage registration” with government agencies.
The vote is a major victory for the island’s LGBT society who have campaigned for years to have similar of equal marriage rights as heterosexual couples and places the island at the vanguard of Asia’s burgeoning gay rights movement.
In recent months conservatives had mobilised to rid the law of any reference to marriage, instead putting forward rival bills that offered something closer to limited same-sex unions. But those bills struggled to receive enough votes.
Hundreds of gay rights supporters on Friday gathered despite dense rain near the parliament building in the capital, Taipei, as legislators were set to vote on a series of bills that could offer gay couples similar legal protections for marriage as heterosexuals.
The vote came after Taiwan’s t