Same-sex marriage has been discussed on and off in the past decade, but proposals never got far. The issue regained momentum in 2016 in part after Jacques Picoux, a French-born resident of Taiwan, apparently committed suicide in October. He had reportedly become depressed after his Taiwanese partner of 35 years died of cancer and Picoux had been forbidden from taking part in medical decisions towards the end of his life. [...]
LGBT rights are relatively strong in Taiwan in large part because the island has a vibrant civil society. Taiwanese endured almost four decades of rule by the repressive Kuomintang party, under which thousands disappeared, were imprisoned, or were murdered in a period known as the “White Terror.” Causes ranging from women’s rights to opposition to nuclear power blossomed in the 1980s as democratization set in, and exploded with the lifting of martial law in 1987. “Taiwan society will not allow Taiwan to go backwards to the days of the KMT,” says Chen Mei-hua, a women’s rights activist and sociologist at National Sun Yat-Sen University in Kaohsiung. [...]
Education is another reason for Taiwan’s progressive atmosphere. In 2004 it passed the Gender Equity Education Act, requiring schools to teach gender equality and diversity. That was a response to the death, still unsolved, of a junior-high student, Yeh Yung-chih, whose body was found in the bathroom in his school in 2000. Yeh was known to have been bullied for displaying “feminine” tendencies, and his story remains a rallying cry for LGBT people in Taiwan. [...]
Finally, some attribute Taiwan’s progressive attitudes to its racial diversity, its relatively small Christian population, and a tradition of religious tolerance. Buddhism, which does not have teachings about homosexuality, also remains an important religion in Taiwan, and in 2012 a same-sex couple tied the knot in a Buddhist ceremony.
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