Taiwan holds Asia's first gay wedding
May 24, 2019
The first legal gay weddings in Asia took place in Taiwan on Friday.
The island made history last week as the first place in Asia to legalize same-sex unions. Hundreds of couples are expected to register their marriage on the day the new law came into effect.
The founders of the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights were the first to do so.
"Never had I thought of the possibility to get married when I first realized that I'm a lesbian at age 15," said Victoria Hsu, the alliance's
president. Her new wife Chih-Chieh Chien, the alliance's secretary-general, said that the couple's parents had "put their signatures on our marriage certificate."
Social worker Huang Mei-yu and her partner You Ya-ting also tied the knot early Friday morning. "It's belated, but I'm still happy we can offically get married in this lifetime," Huang told AFP news agency after signing her marriage certificate.
Deep divisions
Taiwan is at the vanguard of the burgeoning gay rights movement in Asia, despite staunch conservative opposition. Taipei hosts by far Asia's largest gay pride parade. But the issue of LGBT rights has polarized society.
Conservative and religious groups mobilized in recent months and comfortably won a series of referendums last November in which voters rejected defining marriage as anything other than a union between a man and a woman.
The new gay marriage law passed by parliament also places restrictions not faced by heterosexual couples. Same-sex couples can currently only adopt their partners' biological children and can only wed foreigners from countries where gay marriage is also recognized.
sri/rt (AFP, dpa)