Taiwan’s Constitutional Court has ruled that laws forbidding same-sex marriages are unconstitutional, giving the legislature two years to draft new laws in accord with the ruling, the BBC reported Wednesday.
The court concluded that “[S]uch different treatment is incompatible with the spirit and meaning of the right to equality,” said the court, the BBC reported, having concluded that the “different treatment” that same-sex couples have faced has “no rational basis” for justification.
There was already legislation working through the Legislative Yuan to allow same-sex marriage, but it has been held up by traditionalists who philosophically disagree with the policy, the BBC said.
But supporters have a potential cheerleader in President Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s first female leader, who is on record supporting same-sex marriage. What’s more, recent polling shows a majority of Taiwanese are for legalizing same-sex unions, The Associated Press reported.
Gay rights activists in Taiwan are concerned that the Legislative Yuan may merely draft a sort of civil-union alternative that falls short of opening marriage to couples of the same sex, the BBC said.
No country in Asia presently allows gay marriage, the BBC reported.
With virtually independent Taiwan considered by Beijing to be a “renegade province” of the People’s Republic of China, another question that could crop up in the future is what effect, if any, mainland Chinese courts will accord to same-sex marriages solemnized in Taiwan.
For their part, gay-rights activists on the mainland are hopeful that changing policy on Taiwan might provide mounting political pressure for change in Beijing.
“China and Taiwan speak a common language,” Chinese activist Li Maizi said, The Washington Post reported. “This will inspire the LGBT movements’ push for gay marriage.”
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