Political contestation regarding gay marriage continues in Taiwan, with pro-marriage equality groups and anti-gay groups still contesting the issue. The legal terrain has become further complicated since late November...
On November 24, five of the national referendum results show overwhelming opposition against the legalization of same-sex marriage and a gender equality education in grade school that would include LGBTQ issues. While there are many questions that remain to be answered through a more detailed analysis of the voting data, we are here writing as activists to reflect on the movement and offering some observations and directions on how we may want to move forward from here...
With a defeat for gay marriage on the 2018 referendum, what comes next for efforts to realize marriage equality? Legal and political challenges will present the next set of issues to be faced and the Christian right has clearly been emboldened by its victory...
What emerges from a televised debate held on November 15th between New Power Party (NPP) chair Huang Kuo-chang and Tseng Pin-chieh, a professor at the College of Law at National Chung Cheng University, should be highly concerning to supporters of marriage equality in Taiwan. Namely, Tseng’s comments in the debate are highly indicative of what the aims of anti-gay groups in Taiwan are in their referendum against marriage equality, what their current strategy is, and what their endgame likely is...
August would be a key period for several referendum pushes in Taiwan at present. Both the Formosa Alliance’s push to achieve a referendum on Taiwan participating in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics under the name “Taiwan” instead of “Chinese Taipei” and an alliance of anti-gay groups hoping to hold a referendum against gay marriage and sexual education they see as encouraging homosexuality aim to reach 280,000 signatures by the end of the month...
While LGBTQ organizations in Taiwan such as the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline have publicly stated that the recall vote recently faced by NPP chair Huang Kuo-Chang should be a wake-up call for LGBTQ groups in Taiwan, as a reminder of the fact that they remain opposed by a number of socially conservative forces, this also raises a question worth considering. Was it, in fact, anti-gay marriage groups which were the primary force behind the recall vote against Huang? Ultimately, even if the recall vote did not succeed, what one finds in examining the social forces behind the recall vote is that the NPP may have been outgunned from the beginning by conservative social forces...
Huang Kuo-Chang has survived the recall vote organized against him by anti-gay marriage groups in his electoral district of New Taipei 12. Nevertheless, this was by the recall vote not meeting the necessary benchmark to pass, and the amount of voters who voted in favor of the recall were greater than those that voted against it. What now for the NPP, then?...
With NPP chair Huang Kuo-Chang facing a recall vote on December 16th, whether Huang can survive his recall vote regarding his support of gay marriage is, in some way, a sign of whether youth voters stand any chance of changing older, more traditionally conservative electoral districts such as Huang’s New Taipei 12th District...
