Christian groups in Taiwan push for anti-same sex marriage referendum

In May of last year, Taiwan’s Constitutional Court issued a breakthrough ruling essentially forcing the Legislative Yuan to pass same-sex marriage within the next 16 months. Taiwan was well on the way to becoming the first Asian country to legalise equal marriage. Christian groups are putting up fight, however. They have petitioned the government to host three referendums on the rights of gay people.

The petition has received 3,000 signatures, enough for the referendum to be considered. To have the issue formally placed on a ballet they must now get signatures from 281,745 voters, or 1.5 percent of the electorate.

The proposed referendum will ask three questions: the first on whether marriage should be defined as only that between one man and one woman, the second on whether voters approve of “the rights of two people of the same gender to build a permanent life together” through civil unions, and the final question will ask whether LGBT+ sex education is appropriate for high school students.

The outlook is not bleak: recent polls show that over 71 percent of Taiwanese people support same-sex marriage. Chi Chia-wei, a Taiwanese gay rights activist told Focus Taiwan, “If they are going to put this to a referendum, we have got to win.”


Tim Gibson - myGwork