Taiwan Becomes First Asian Country To Legalise Same-Sex Marriage

Taiwan's government has made the decision to make same-sex marriage legal - making it the first Asian country to do so.

Back in 2017, some of the country's top lawyers debated in favour of legalising them, and gave the government until 24 May this year to pass the changes and on Friday they did just that.

It was one of three bills that were set for debate on whether or not they could be called 'marriages' - the other two bills debated in favour of the act to be 'same-sex family relationships' or 'same-sex unions' rather than 'marriages'.

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The more modern and liberal term 'marriage' was chosen. The bill was also the only one of the three which allowed same-sex couples to be given limited adoption rights.

According to the BBC, gay rights supporters lined the street outside the government building in the capital of Taipei to wait for the answer on the groundbreaking ruling.

The Taiwan president tweeted a comment in support of the ruling earlier in the day.

Tsai Ing-wen posted on social media that the island had a 'chance to make history' with the vote.

Many activists had said ahead of the vote that it was the only version they would accept.

"The [government]'s bill is already our bottom line, we won't accept any more compromise," Jennifer Lu, the chief coordinator of rights group Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan told Reuters.

She added: "If one of the two other bills is passed, we will launch another constitutional court challenge."

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The initial bills were met with backlash from the public, which meant the government were pressured into holding referendums.

The BBC reported that 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.

This means that the law is not an amendment to the original definition of marriage in civil law, but a new, special law just for same-sex marriage.

As Tsai Ing-wen said, it really has proved to the world love wins.

Topics: World News

Amelia Ward

Amelia is a journalist at LADbible. After studying journalism at Liverpool John Moores and Salford Uni (don't ask), she went into PR and then the world of music. After a few years working on festivals and events, she went back to her roots. In her spare time, Amelia likes music, Liverpool FC, and spending good, quality time with her cat, Paul. You can contact Amelia at [email protected].

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