Taiwan’s parliament allows gay couples to jointly adopt children, a move hailed by activists as “another big step forward” for marriage equality. Taiwan is at the vanguard of Asia’s burgeoning LGBTQ rights movement, becoming the first place in the region to legalise marriage equality in 2019.
But same-sex couples still faced restrictions, such as
• Being unable to jointly adopt children.
• While individuals in Taiwan were allowed to adopt regardless of sexual orientation, those in same-sex marriages could not both be legal parents unless the child was one partner’s biological offspring.
The same sex marriage was legalized on 24th May, 2019. On the eve of the fourth anniversary of Taiwan’s marriage equality law — parliament passed the amendment removing those restrictions, with lawmaker Fan Yun hailing the cross-party support for the bill. The amendment ensures the protection of children’s rights and also ensuring their best interests.
• In the future, spouses and parents, regardless of gender and sexual orientation, can have full legal protection.
• The group also hailed Taiwan’s recent recognition of transnational same-sex marriage — a move made in January by then-premier Su Tseng-chang to lift restrictions for international couples.
• Previously foreigners were not allowed to wed their Taiwanese partners if they came from territories banning same-sex marriage — which is much of Asia.
• Taiwan is home to a thriving LGBTQ community — a record 200,000 people attended a pride march in Taipei in 2019 to celebrate the legalization of same-sex marriage.
• That law came about after Taiwan’s top court ruled that denying same-sex couples the right to marry was discriminatory and unconstitutional.
