Last year Taiwan’s top court declared same-sex couples had the legal right to marry, but conservative groups took it as a call to action and successfully petitioned for a referendum scheduled to take place on November 24th.
Taiwan’s constitutional court had given the government until May 2019 to legalize same-sex marriage, ruling that the civil code’s definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman was unconstitutional. If the government didn’t meet the deadline, the court said, same-sex marriage would simply become legal automatically.
With just one week to go, last Friday found major corporations are throwing their vote into the public letting all know where they stand. Twenty seven companies like JPMorgan, IBM, Google, and Microsoft showed their support for same-sex marriage in Taiwan. Their joint statement said same-sex couples “deserve the same right to marry in Taiwan as other couples” and policies like these that promote diversity would only benefit business and assist Taiwan in the business world with attracting and keeping quality employees.
Related Posts:
Taiwan's The First Country In Asia To Legalize Gay Marriage
Heartwarming Photos Capture The Joy Of Marriage Equality Celebrations In Taiwan
Religious Groups in Taiwan Move To Appeal Same-Sex Marriage Ruling
As Thailand Races Towards Same-Sex Unions, Taiwan Struggles With Religious Opposition
Taiwan is one of the most liberal nations in Asia, where most other nations are very conservative politically and especially with LGBTQ+ equality.
Proponents of equal rights have not been happy with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen. His election campaign included the promise of bringing marriage equality to the nation, but he personally has done little to make this happen.
The Coalition for the Happiness of Our Next Generation lobbied for the referendum after the court's ruling believing that the island nation was “not ready for drastic changes" and stated that if same-sex couples wanted to be legally together, there should be different laws for them so they would not have to redefine marriage laws for all.
The Nov. 24 referendum has four questions related to same-sex marriage, two for and two against.
In all, ten questions appear on the ballot. Five of the questions reviewed and approved by the Central Election Commission (CEC) relate to LGBT rights, LGBT sex education and same-sex marriage. Four other questions on the ballot regard international games representation, nuclear power, coal power and a ban on imports of agricultural products and food from areas affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster.The tenth question asks voters to reject Article 95-1 of the Electricity Act, which stipulates that all of the nation’s nuclear power generating facilities should be decommissioned by 2025. This question had originally been rejected by the CEC, though the commission reversed its decision after being ordered by the Taipei High Administrative Court to accept an additional 24,000 signatures added to the petition. – wikipedia.com
For a referendum to pass, 25 percent of the eligible voters must vote in favor of the question.
Do you think corporations would come out against same-sex marriage?
h/t: reuters.com