Taiwan High Court Approves Gay Marriage
- By
- On Top Magazine Staff
- | May 24, 2017
Taiwan's constitutional court ruled Wednesday that limiting marriage to heterosexual couples violates the island nation's constitution.
The court gave parliament, known as the Legislative Yuan, two years to amend or enact a law that allows gay and lesbian couples to marry. The groundbreaking ruling is a first for Asia.
According to several reports, two justices dissented and one recused himself, saying that his wife supported the cause of marriage equality, effectively delivering an 11-2 ruling.
After years of refusing to take up the issue, the court listened to arguments in March.
“We feel that this is a huge success for the LGBT and marriage equality movement in Taiwan,” Wayne Lin, an LGBT activist, told CNN. We want to amend the Civil Code so same-sex couples can get married. … Our target is to complete this whole process within this year.”
President Tsai Ing-wen supports marriage equality and several polls indicate that a majority of Taiwanese do, as well. A marriage bill introduced last year stalled.