Same-sex marriage in Taiwan

Same-sex couples are able to legally register their relationship through a special "partnership registration" (Chinese: 同性伴侶註記)[a] in 18 of Taiwan's cities and counties that account for 94 percent of the country's population.

[9][10][11] In May 2015, the special municipality of Kaohsiung announced a plan to allow same-sex couples to mark their partners in civil documents for reference purposes, although it would not be applicable to the healthcare sector.

[19] On 27 January 2016, Mayor Lai Ching-te announced that same-sex couples would be allowed to officially register their partnership in the city,[20][21] starting on 1 February 2016.

[26] The registration began on 14 March 2016,[22] making Taoyuan the sixth as well as the last special municipality in Taiwan to officially recognize same-sex couples.

[53] Despite some division within the party on the issue, DPP's victorious presidential candidate for the January 2016 election, Tsai Ing-wen, announced her support for same-sex marriage in November 2015.

[54] In March 2012, a same-sex couple, Ching-Hsueh Chen and Chih-Wei Kao, applied to the Taipei High Administrative Court to have their relationship recognized as a marriage.

On 25 October 2013, a petition-initiated bill to revise the Civil Code to allow for same-sex marriage was introduced by 23 DPP lawmakers to the Legislative Yuan.

Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Ming-tang said "...in Taiwan, the issue of legalizing same-sex marriage remains extremely controversial...so we should not consider it for now".

[61] In October 2015, same-sex couples were allowed to participate at the Taoyuan City Government's public mass wedding ceremony for the first time.

On 23 February 2016, the Referendum Review Committee (行政院公民投票審議委員會) rejected a proposal put forward by the Faith and Hope League on the grounds that it failed to meet requirements.

Chairman of the committee, Wang Kao-cheng, said it was rejected for two reasons: one, that the proposed was not a law, a legislative principle, important policy or constitutional amendment and therefore did not meet the requirements of the Referendum Act (Chinese: 公民投票法); and two, the proposal was about revising several provisions of the Civil Code, which did not meet the law's requirement that a referendum should be about a single issue.

[66][67] On 16 October 2016, Jacques Picoux, a lecturer at the National Taiwan University, died after falling from the tenth floor of his Taipei apartment block; friends believed he had taken his own life due to lack of same-sex marriage rights.

Yu Mei-nu, who drafted the bill, expressed optimism the law would be introduced as early as the following year and that same-sex marriage would be legal in the country by the end of 2017.

KMT and PFP representatives demanded a nationwide series of hearings be held over a number of months on the issue, while DPP legislators wanted the bills to be reviewed and immediately proceeded with.

[79][80] In October 2017, Premier Lai Ching-te said that the government "is not giving up its effort to present a proposal before the end of the year to legalize same-sex marriage".

In March 2017, the full panel of the Constitutional Court (Judicial Yuan) heard a case brought by gay rights activist Chi Chia-wei (whose attempt at registering a marriage with his partner in 2013 was rejected) and the Taipei City Government's Department of Civil Affairs.

[96] In October 2017, 22 members of the Yunlin County Council voted to support a motion to impeach Hsu Tzong-li, the President of the Judicial Yuan, and the other judges who ruled in favor of same-sex marriage.

[97][98] Members who signed the motion claimed that "marriages between same-sex couples will have a huge impact on the society and social order" and that the ruling had caused "disappointment and concern".

[101][102] The group wanted the three following questions to be presented to Taiwanese voters:[102] LGBT activist Chi Chia-wei described the referendum proposal as "clearly a violation of the Constitution".

[114] The following day, Premier Lai Ching-te confirmed that the government would respect the results of the referendum and as such would not amend the Civil Code, but rather prepare a separate law on the matter,[3] and on 5 December, the Minister of Justice, Tsai Ching-hsiang, said that a bill would be introduced before 1 March 2019.

[140] The government subsequently announced its intention to draft a bill to allow same-sex marriages between Taiwanese nationals and foreign citizens regardless of whether the spouse's homeland recognizes the union.

While the changes would also cover Hong Kong and Macau, they would not apply to Chinese citizens because cross-strait marriages must be registered in mainland China before they can be recognized in Taiwan.

Cross-strait same-sex couples who have been legally married abroad must present formal documentation of their marriage and must be interviewed by Taiwanese agencies prior to certification in Taiwan.

Christian denominations, including the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, have been influential in indigenous communities in campaigning against same-sex marriage and the existence of the adju.

[165] A poll of 6,439 Taiwanese adults released in April 2006 by the National Union of Taiwan Women's Association/Constitutional Reform Alliance found that 75% believed same-sex relationships were "acceptable", while 25% thought they were "unacceptable".

[168] A November 2013 poll of 1,377 adults commissioned by cable news channel TVBS indicated that 45% of Taiwanese people opposed same-sex unions, while 40% were in favor.

[170] When conservative religious groups opposed to same-sex marriage launched a petition for public support of their position, a staff editorial from the English-language China Post questioned the logic of the opponents' arguments and endorsed the legalization of same-sex marriage as "a huge step forward in the fight for universal equality akin to ending apartheid".

[172] An online opinion poll carried out by the Ministry of Justice between August and October 2015 indicated that 71% of the Taiwanese population supported same-sex marriage.

[173] An opinion poll conducted in November 2016 by the Kuomintang party found that 52% of the Taiwanese population supported same-sex marriage, while 43% were opposed.

[178] A Pew Research Center poll conducted between June and September 2023 showed that 45% of Taiwanese people supported same-sex marriage, 43% were opposed and 12% did not know or had refused to answer.