The administration of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has approved a draft bill which, if passed, will make Taiwan the first country in Asia to legally enact marriage equality for same-sex couples.
The draft legislation comes almost two years after Taiwan’s highest court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. However, voters decided in last November’s referendums that marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman in Taiwan’s Civil Code, dealing a blow to Taiwan’s LGBT activists.
The new bill has frustrated the anti-same-sex marriage campaigners behind the November referendums, who had hoped for a watered down bill providing only for same-sex civil unions.
