Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice says that it has decided to hammer out a “same-sex partners act” to protect the legal rights of the nation’s gays and lesbians. It said that’s in light of recent global trends and gradually changing public attitudes in Taiwan.
The ministry says that it will conduct surveys go gauge public opinion, and is not ruling out the creation of gay marriage legislation. The ministry says it has collected legal examples from other countries and is looking into the feasibility of implementing similar legislation in Taiwan.
A Sunday report in the Taiwan-based United Daily News quoted Justice Minister Luo Ying-shay as saying that the ministry will gauge public opinion on the National Development Council’s I-voting internet platform. She said that would help determine whether the ministry will move to enact same-sex partner legislation first, or move directly toward gay marriage legislation.
Same-sex partner legislation would involve rights and responsibilities similar to those stipulated by marriage, covering things like inheritance. The right to adopt children would still need to be discussed. Marriage legislation, on the other hand, would be extend the same marriage rights of heterosexual couples to gays and lesbians.
Right now, same-sex marriage is legal in more than 20 countries around the world. The justice ministry says that many countries, like France and the UK, passed same-sex partner legislation before tackling marriage. The ministry said that doing so can help reduce the institutional impact and the social cost of moving straight to marriage legislation.
Meanwhile, the United Daily News report said that the justice ministry commissioned a public opinion poll on the issue back in 2013. That survey found that 53.7% of respondents believe that same-sex partners should be allowed to marry. Some 61.1% of the respondents said that married same-sex partners should be allowed to adopt children.