Government Proposes Marriage Inequality

While everyone is celebrating the draft same-sex partnership law that has been announced and will move to the legislature for debate, here I am - as always - sucking vinegar and taking names.

That's not to say there's nothing good about the draft law - just that it isn't marriage equality and we can't rightfully call it that. And I wouldn't say I oppose the law, but you won't find me shouting my support from the rooftops either. I hope it passes, but if you want my enthusiasm, well, sorry to disappoint. 

Therefore, while we can say that Taiwan will be the first country to offer some kind of same-sex "marriage", and they even call it  "marriage" in the draft, it's not equal, period.

There are some positives: next-of-kin rights (medical visitation, making medical decisions, inheritances) seem to be included, so previous real-life situations in which someone was in the hospital and their same-sex partner could not visit or make decisions for them, or when someone died and their estate went to their blood family and not the person who was their spouse in all but legal name will be averted. That's a very important big win. We can also assume that this will include the ability to buy insurance together, be on the same medical insurance plans etc. - not as big a deal in Taiwan given the NHI system, but still important.

And, of course, the proposal specifically uses the word "marriage", which does matter. Words mean things; they imply a definition of truth. The Executive Yuan didn't have to use that word - they could have called it something more like "union" or "partnership" but didn't, which sends a strong message. Good.

It is not, however, equal marriage.

At the risk of angering some people (though I'm not at all sorry), some other aspects of this draft law are some big fat Jim Crow bullshit.

Same-sex couples will not gain the right of co-adoption; one spouse may adopt only the biological offspring of the other. That means no adopting orphaned children, and it also creates some very difficult barriers.

Fertility treatments and surrogacy are not easily obtainable by single people in Taiwan; often the treatments are only available to married couples at any price (it's not an issue of these treatments not being covered by NHI; unmarried people are simply banned from accessing them). From the Storm Media piece, the "special law" says that giving these treatments to same sex couples will be "at the competent authorities' discretion", whatever that means. So it may be quite difficult for same-sex couples to even have biological children, if they are denied access by these "competent authorities".

The issue of international marriage is not mentioned in the law, and appears for now to therefore not be covered. Storm Media's link above implies that it will  that it will only be possible to marry a same-sex foreigner if that foreigner's country of citizenship also recognizes same-sex marriage. That's not quite the case, necessarily: it would be quite possible to overrule the prohibition on marrying in this case, citing it as a disruptor of 'public order' in Taiwan. My lawyer friend says he hopes that this is how such cases are interpreted going forward. 

The "religious freedom" clause, which specifically says this marriage bill will not interfere with anyone's right to practice their religion as they wish, is unclear. I'm not opposed to it on its face; if someone wants to believe in some gay-hating sky friend, I think that's kind of dumb and bigoted but I don't think they must be legally mandated to change their (dumb and bigoted) religious beliefs. Freedom of religion is a basic right after all. But, it's unclear whether that will extend to allowing employers to discriminate against LGBT employees, or businesses to discriminate against LGBT customers, on the basis of religion. This needs to be clarified.

There is also a minor difference in the legal age of marriage, but it's more likely that the actual marriage law (rather than this unequal "special law") will be amended so that the age of consent to marry is the same across genders.

And, finally, this "special law" doesn't establish an official "in-law" relationship. I'm not quite sure what that means in practice, but it is a difference.

For all of these reasons, I simply cannot say that Taiwan is on the cusp of marriage equality. There will be some form of marriage with this law - which has not passed yet, by the way, it's just about to reach the legislature now and needs to be debated and voted on - but the fight isn't over.

The good news is that the unequal aspects of this law can be challenged in court, and I have to believe they were designed to be easily toppled. The Council of Grand Justices ruling in May 2017 specifically said that, as all citizens must have access to equal rights, that the right to marry must therefore be equal.

This does not confer equality, and therefore does not quite adhere to the constitutional interpretation ruling, and so is subject to legal challenge on those grounds. I am sure it will be challenged, and there's a strong foundation for making that happen relatively expediently while ensuring that the most egregious withholding of rights (next-of-kin issues) are handled.

It's a step, but I have to admit I grow tired of these half-steps. It happened with dual nationality too (allowing some special magic foreigners to qualify for dual nationality and relegating the rest of us to Garbage Foreigner status).

I know it's hard to convince more conservative factions of society that sweeping change is necessary, but real lives are impacted in the meantime, and it's tiring to be expected to compromise with Granny Bigot (age shouldn't be a factor but public opinion polls show that there is a strong age correlation) while waiting for access to rights (like marriage) and privileges (like dual nationality) that meaningfully change our lives. I get that there are political strategies to consider, but I personally am fine with letting Granny Bigot be upset.

I also don't feel all "rah rah hooray" when I know that this 'special law' is essentially an encouragement to keep fighting, not a summative victory.

The good news is that this is really angering conservative groups in Taiwan. Awesome! I hope all of their kids are gay. (That's not a punishment, it'll make Taiwan more awesome, but it'll also make them mad and make them think they're suffering...and that's great.)

So what can we do in the meantime?

To ensure that Taiwan moves toward actual marriage equality, we can donate to any number of pro-equality groups so that they have the funds to mount legal challenges, for starters. Here's a good place to start.

We can talk to relatives who disagree. Rallies are nice and stickers are great, and so are banners in hipster cafes, but the real change will happen when we start talking to the people in our lives about what equality means and why it matters for Taiwan (and everywhere). That if Taiwan stands for freedom and human rights, this is an essential part of it.

And while I won't tell others they can't celebrate, I'm holding off on my party. I will neither relax nor celebrate until we get actual marriage equality in Taiwan.

Whatever Happens Tomorrow

I'm back, just in time! My last pre-dissertation paper is in and I've caught up on sleep, so hopefully it'll be less of a wasteland in here while I get back into writing (though I have a backlog of things I need to write for other people, so it may not be the frenzy that was October).

So, I awoke from my post-academic-writing stupor to realize, oh crap, the election is tomorrow! I can't vote so it shouldn't matter to me, but it does.

I don't like...any of the candidates, just about anywhere. So I'm not even bothering - the major races are a mess and that's that. Taipei especially has no good options. Sooo, whatever. Most of all, I'm worried about marriage equality. And pissed, because while I understand that the DPP wussed out in part because their more conservative supporters weren't having it on changing the civil code, if they'd acted swiftly and just pushed it through, we would not be in this position now, with a vote coming up on people's basic human rights.

This is related to my worry about the candidates, though: the KMT candidates are just...so anti-equality, and anti-gay groups are apparently showing up at their rallies according to friends of mine who have attended (I've been too busy to attend, because I'm a cut-rate blogger.) I have to wonder if the KMT cut a back-room deal with the pink-shirted church jerks: bus your sheep parishioners to our rallies and get them to vote for us, and we'll make sure there's no change to the civil law. We don't actually care, but we want your votes so we'll throw them under the bus for you if you show up for us. 

It doesn't seem likely that the two pro-equality referendums will pass, simply because although at least 25% of the voting population supports them, a fair number are young and can't return 'home' to vote either because they can't afford it or they have to work. Of the big, soft center of Taiwanese society of decent folks who aren't opposed to equality, but aren't passionately for it, I worry that many just won't vote, or will vote for the anti-equality referendums because they've been tricked by those horrible church people.

But, if we do win, the church people aren't going away. We won't have really beat them until we change the civil code and normalize equality to the point that they won't be able to get support for changing it back.

If we lose, there are a few things to take comfort in.

First, that the old out-vote the young, because the young are busy and broke. Even if the anti-equality referendums pass and the pro-equality ones don't, that won't be a complete reflection of Taiwanese society.

Second, they may be trying to put a barrier in our way - ironically making life more difficult for the next generation while braying about how they are trying to "protect" the youth - but the youth of Taiwan overwhelmingly support marriage equality, and while people may grow more conservative as they age, that's never struck me as a view that tends to change once someone realizes equality is right. Those old church people will die - some of them soon, because they're old - and their legacy will not live on. It's too late for that. This particular arc of justice may be long, but its trajectory is pretty set.

Third, even if we do lose, there will be some form of civil partnership by May next year. That doesn't satisfy me - inequality is still inequality and it's not good enough - but it's a step, and then we keep fighting.

What worries me on this end is that politically, Taiwan stands to benefit a great deal from equality: think of the headlines once it actually goes through! It's been great PR for this country already, and started to wake the world up to the ways in which Taiwan is a bastion of (comparative - in certain ways only) liberalism in Asia. The longer we delay that, the worse it will be for Taiwan. And if we delay too long and are not, in fact, the first country in Asia to pass actual marriage equality, we'll lose a huge opportunity to make massive global headlines. All those pro-independence greens who say they want the world to notice Taiwan as Taiwan, but who are conservative and maybe even Christian (the DPP has strong ties to the Presbyterian church) are shooting themselves in the foot, and they don't even seem to realize it. We not only need to do this soon for the sake of LGBT people, we need to be the first in Asia for Taiwan's political sake.

And finally, it's not particularly clear to me that the results of any of these referendums are binding (I've heard people say they are, and that they aren't, and I've been too mired in school work to research it on my own.)

So, whatever happens tomorrow, the march toward equality in Taiwan continues, and there will be progress. There has already been progress: from a few years ago when the anti-equality side was trying to stop any sort of civil partnership for LGBT people and attempting to paint them as moral degenerates, to now when even the anti-gay camp being forced to support some sort of civil partnership law, the conversation has changed. If we lose, we can't accept the bottom line of the church people, but we have shown that the conversation can keep changing.

100,000 or so people showed up to Ketagalan Boulevard this past Sunday for a pop-and-metal-star filled afternoon of music and cheering, when estimates had been for a far smaller crowd. It was bigger than the rally for any of the Taipei mayoral candidates, and bigger than anything the anti-equality crowd has been able to put together. Interestingly - from my perspective anyway - the way marriage equality has been approached in Taiwan feels unique. I can't imagine, before it became a nationwide law in the US, a pro-equality rally featuring a black metal band as one of its most famous acts. I guess in the US we just don't Metal For Our Rights (to quote a friend). I sat through the whole thing writing my paper while splayed out on the pavement, protesting and doing my homework at the same time...and I have never felt more Taiwanese.

In any case, we draw crowds. We change conversations. We push forward. The generation that is on its way out is the last generation that will keep us from marriage equality in Taiwan. Even if they win this battle, they have emphatically lost the war.

That doesn't make me happy per se, but it's keeping me away from the bottle tonight.

The dirty tricks of the anti-marriage equality camp

Trying to keep this nice and short, because I still have a paper to write. But, this is worth a look.

A Facebook friend recently shared a link to this foetid rolling trash landslide commercial in order to point out how completely devious it was.

Go ahead, watch. Well, get a bucket first. Then watch. I'll wait.

Done puking? Good.

So, for the non-Chinese speaking readers out there, it's a very simple premise. Sad probably-lesbian family member hugs her pretty bigot family member.

Woman: "Why don't you care about me?"
Pretty Bigot: "In fact, I love you."
Woman: "Why don't you understand me?"
Pretty bigot: "In fact, you're my family."
Woman: "Why don't you support me?" (presumably meaning her right to marry)
Pretty bigot: "I support you."

*Cue inspirational rock muzak*

Pretty bigot: So I hope there's a special law to protect you. In fact, we love one another. I only hope my standpoint can be clear to you.

Woman smiles and cries because her Pretty Bigot relative is so understanding and awesome. 

Then it says to vote for referendums 10, 11, and 12.

10, 11 and 12 are the referendums against marriage equality.

Anyone not paying much attention, from this commercial, would think they are voting for equal rights for their LGBT+ loved ones, not against them. And yet, that's exactly what this commercial is telling them to do. Or, anyone who doesn't want to seem like they're anti-equality but in fact doesn't support equal rights has just been handed a beautifully-pressed fig leaf with which to cover their bigotry.

This isn't even the first trick (or even the same one of that type).

Recently, I observed that the particular wording of one of the referendums aims to make it sound as though one is supporting ensuring "the rights and interests" (權益) of same-sex couples by voting for it (The Diplomat also reported on this). If you read carefully, however, it specifically says 婚姻以外 - "in a manner other than marriage". This particular phrasing seems aimed at two groups. The first, I think, are conservative oldsters who don't want to admit that they are a bit homophobic (in particular, perhaps, that demographic who are fiercely pro-Taiwan and will proudly tell you that Taiwan stands for human rights, freedom and democracy, but who still get the willies when two dudes kiss while not wanting to consider themselves as someone who would deny other Taiwanese 'equal rights'). The second are the "compromisers" - the same group that thinks "the status quo" is just fine because it's "safe", who think that any "middle ground" solution is automatically good because it's in the middle.

Neither group wants to seem bigoted, so this "protect the rights and interests of homosexuals" wording offers them a fig leaf to vote against equality while telling themselves they are good people.

This got me worried about the other ways in which anti-gay groups were trying to advertise their anti-gay agenda as pro-LGBT support.

We all know now that anti-marriage equality groups signed up to represent the pro-equality side in scheduled televised debates. Not having a television, I'm not actually sure if these debates have aired as yet, and I haven't seen any news about them since.

Update! The CEC didn't seem intent on taking any particular action, so pro-equality groups loudly congratulated anti-equality ones on "changing sides", which was embarrassing enough to the anti-equality groups that they dropped out. GOOD JOB!

The campaigning of the anti-equality groups is similarly illegal. They're not supposed to be handing out political literature on trains or putting up fliers or banners in public areas for free (the same rules apply to election campaigns), but that is what they are doing. They either have to pay for advertising, or get permission from private property to put up their banners (or put them on their own buildings). They can pass out fliers on streetcorners, but not on public transportation.

If you see this happening, you can and should call train attendants to tell them to stop.

If you see banners illegally placed in public areas, you can take them down. They broke the law, not you. If you don't feel comfortable with that, call the number below:




That's 0800-066-666


And it goes without saying that there is a lot of misinformation being spread about how marriage equality will "contribute to the declining birthrate" or "turn Taiwan into an AIDS island". This is the sort of thing they are spreading on Line groups, as they infiltrate community, family and school Line communities where political posts don't belong.

That's so ridiculous, it doesn't even count as 'trickery'. It's not a twist of the truth or confusing wording. It's just lies.

That said, I honestly think these deliberately slippery ads that equate voting for anti-marriage equality initiatives are a way to support your LGBT friends and relatives alongside confusingly-worded initiatives are even more worrisome. Some people may genuinely be tricked. Some may simply trick themselves.

And frankly, the line between being tricked into supporting bigotry and choosing not to notice that you are being led to it is fine and blurry at best, if it exists at all. Some might be misled by these tactics, but many others are looking for reasons to convince themselves that they can vote against equality without being terrible people.

And that's terrifying, because it very often works. We all have deep-seated prejudices we'd rather convince ourselves aren't there. I'm sure I do (I try to find them and root them out but almost by definition I don't know what they are until I wake up to them.) How many grandmas who don't hate their gay grandsons, how many friends who don't hate their LGBT+ friends, how many sisters and brothers, how many uncles who love their LGBT+ loved one, but deep down secretly still get the willies when two dudes kiss, and so want a fig leaf to say they "support them" with a "special law" as a way of voting against actual equality?

My guess is a lot. And that scares the crap out of me.

I want to say "dirty tricksters never win", but you know what, sometimes they do. Sometimes they win bigly. In the end they generally get discovered and eradicated - like those latent prejudices I keep discovering and rooting out, or particularly bulbous whiteheads - but they can do a lot of damage in the meantime.

I didn't bother to check the Chinese so I just have to assume my prose is comprehensible. 

So what can we do to counter these slimy and illegal tactics?

Other than alerting employees on public transit and calling to complain about public signs, there are other actions you can take.

If you see fliers put up where they shouldn't be allowed - I saw one in my building this morning! - take them down. You are within your rights as long as you don't destroy any property.

If someone tries to give you a flier, loudly and vocally tell them that you disagree with discriminating against LGBT+ people. Use English if you have to - you aren't going to change their mind but your point will be clear to people around you.

If you see stacks of fliers left in public buildings (e.g. libraries, municipal facilities, schools), this too is typically not allowed. Just take them all! After all, they're free to anyone. Why not let them all be free to you?

If a business you frequent has these fliers available, tell them openly that this bothers you and that you will no longer patronize their business unless they stop allowing these kinds of political materials. Post on their Facebook page, include it in reviews etc. Take a photo to prove your case, because people are litigation-happy here about bad reviews. Do the same if there's a 青少年純潔協會 donation box (they are loaded, and anti-equality). Ask for it to be removed; some establishments might comply!

If someone gums up your Line group with their garbage, don't let it stand. Respond! Tell them you don't agree with discriminating against LGBT+ people, or that this sort of political talk is not welcome in your otherwise unrelated Line group.

If you want to donate, there are many choices. Here's just one, directly related to the fight for marriage equality. 

If you want to add your physical presence to the crowd of supporters, start tying rainbow gear to your bag, and attend the pro-marriage-equality rally on November 18 at Ketagalan Boulevard. It starts at 1, and Chthonic will perform in the evening!

My building this morning: before I came through, and after.
They have no right to put up political fliers in private apartment buildings, so I
don't feel sorry at all about a little sabotage.