Download This PaperThe Struggle for Marriage Equality and the Need to Focus on Transgender Rights in Taiwan
Cardozo International Comparative, Policy & Ethics Law Review, Vol. 3, pp. 207-240, 2019
34 Pages Posted: 8 Jun 2019 Last revised: 23 Apr 2020
Date Written: May 19, 2019
Abstract
Marriage equality has been the focus of LGBTQ rights activists in Taiwan for the past decade. After numerous setbacks, same-sex marriage was finally legalized in May 2019 due to the Constitutional Court decision that found the Civil Code limiting marriages to between a man and a woman to be unconstitutional because it violated the principles of equality and the freedom of marriage. Moving forward, while ensuring marriage equality is enforced in practice, LGBTQ rights activists in Taiwan must strategize on their next steps, including combating other types of discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation and advocating for transgender rights. As a first step, the energy from the marriage equality victory and the language used by the Justices of the Constitutional Court should be utilized to argue for the elimination of the onerous regulations for legal gender change, which currently requires transgender persons to undergo surgery to remove their reproductive organs. On a broader level, the advocacy for the LGBTQ community in Taiwan should not be limited to equality in the law but should also transform the meaning and practice of freedom and autonomy in the process. The Constitutional Court decision can serve as the catalyst for this struggle for self-determination.
Keywords: marriage equality, same-sex marriage, transgender rights, LGBTQ, Taiwan
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M. Bob Kao (Contact Author)
Queen Mary University of London, Centre for Commercial Law Studies ( email )
67-69 Lincoln’s Inn Fields
London
United Kingdom