Earlier this month, several dozen civil society organizations have issued an open letter criticizing the inaction of Taichung city authorities regarding a sexual assault case involving a principal accused of assaulting a female student 25 years ago...
Changes to Article 20 of the Act for the Judicial Yuan’s Implementation of Constitutional Interpretation No. 748 cleared review by the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee of the Legislative Yuan late last month. The proposed amendment would allow for joint adoption of the adopted child of one member of the couple. Current laws only allow for an individual to adopt the biological child of their partner...
The Kaohsiung Juvenile and Family Court made a historic ruling last month, allowing a gay couple to adopt a child that neither of the two is biologically related to. At the same time, the ruling is case-specific, only applies to that couple, and does not overturn current laws in Taiwan, which only allow gay couples to jointly adopt if the child is the biological child of one of the couple...
The Mainland Affairs Council stated earlier this month that it intends to amend current laws regulating transnational gay marriages in such a manner that international marriages are recognized, including for Chinese spouses. Nevertheless, one notes that the Mainland Affairs Council already stated that it was exploring options for Chinese spouses in January 2021, meaning that the issue has dragged on for almost a year...
Taiwan's highly sensationalist media has seized on the news story of DPP legislator Kao Chia-yu filing a police report against her boyfriend, Raphael Lin, for physical abuse...
A Taiwanese-Singaporean lesbian couple won their court case to get married yesterday, following a two-year lawsuit. The couple is publicly known as Xiao C and Mei-ping. Mei-ping is Singaporean while Xiao C is Taiwanese...
A variety of events happened this past week with regards to the ongoing struggle for transgender rights in Taiwan, including Taiwan’s first successful legal gender change without submitting proof of surgery, Lisbeth Wu’s second preliminary proceedings, and the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights' second Transgender Film Festival. These gains for transgender rights have not gone unchallenged though, as the past two months have also included increasing opposition...
Abortion rights in Taiwan are likely to experience an upcoming legal battle, with plans by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) to amend the Genetic Health Act...
The annual pride parade that takes place in Taiwan on October 30th took place primarily online this year, along with the third annual Trans March, which was also moved to livestream programming...
The issue of "deepfakes" has been widely discussed in Taiwan after YouTuber "Xiao Yu" was found to be responsible for a Telegram group used to sell, commission, and circulate "deepfake" porn videos of women, who were mostly public figures. Xiao Yu, whose real name is Zhu Yu-chen, was subsequently taken into custody. Xiao Yu is primarily known for humor videos, though some of his viral stunts have caused controversy in the past...
