Taiwan’s parliament has become the first in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage following a vote on Friday.
It is worth mentioning that in 2017, Taiwan’s constitutional court ruled that same-sex couples had the right to legally marry. Parliament was given a two-year deadline and was required to pass the changes by 24 May.
Lawmakers debated three different bills to legalise same-sex marriage. The government’s bill, the most progressive of the three was passed.
Hundreds of gay rights supporters gathered despite heavy rain near Taipei’s parliament as a mammoth legislative debate got underway over an issue that has bitterly divided the island.
The vote is a major victory for the island’s LGBT community, who have campaigned for years to have similar of equal marriage rights as heterosexual couples and places the island at the vanguard of Asia’s burgeoning gay rights movement.
Taiwan’s constitutional court ruled that same-sex couples had the right to legally marry. But this was met with a public backlash, which pressured the government into holding a series of referendums. The referendum results showed that a majority of voters in Taiwan rejected legalising same-sex marriage, saying that the definition of marriage was the union of a man and woman. After this, Taiwan said it would not alter its existing definition of marriage in civil law, and instead would enact a special law for same-sex marriage.
