High Court Clears way for gay marriage in Taiwan

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Yesterday's verdict of the Constitutional Court (full text) striking down prohibitions on gay marriage was especially moving for me. The verdict was due at 4:00, so I turned on the livestream in my writing class, which is full of very progressive Chinese medicine students. A deep throb of joy ran through us all as the court announced that gay people were full human beings like everyone else. It was a beautiful moment in my life.

China Post summed it up simply:

The Constitutional Court ruled that the Civil Code provisions that do not allow same-sex marriage are unconstitutional and asked the government to amend relevant laws within two years to protect gay couples' rights.

Article 972 of the Civil Code states that an agreement to marry "shall be made by the male and the female parties in their own concord."

Of the 15 justices, 12 were in favor of this interpretation (with one recusal), a stunning figure when you consider that the court has a majority of Ma appointees and the KMT is opposed to gay marriage.

The court's verdict was highly progressive. Not only did it recognize equality of all citizens under the law, as enshrined in Article 7 of the Constitution, it also forthrightly referred to modern medical and social research on homosexuality:

(6) Sexual orientation is an immutable characteristic that is resistant to change. The contributing factors to sexual orientation may include physical and psychological elements, living experience, and the social environment. Major medical associations have stated that homosexuality is not a disease. In our country, homosexuals were once denied by social tradition and custom in the past. As a result, they have long been locked in the closet and suffered various forms of de facto or de jure exclusion or discrimination. Besides, homosexuals, because of the demographic structure, have been a discrete and insular minority in the society. Impacted by stereotypes, they have been among those lacking political power for a long time, unable to overturn their legally disadvantaged status through ordinary democratic process. Accordingly, in determining the constitutionality of different treatment based on sexual orientation, a heightened standard shall be applied.

If only my home country was so progressive. This verdict was also delivered first in English, a first in the nation's history. As soon as I heard the announcement that English would be the language, I thought it might be favorable.

This verdict will redound to Taiwan's credit wherever people long to build loving, human-centered societies. It will be heard in China, where the courts have only limited independence. It will help advance the cause of different people everywhere. Good job, my adopted home.

The President tweeted:

Tsai made her stance in favor of the ruling clear in the first line of the tweet saying, "The law must protect the people's freedom of marriage and right to equality."

She then called on all government agencies to move as quickly as possible to draft legislation for deliberation in the Legislative Yuan, and pass the bills in a "timely manner." Prior to the court's ruling, legislation on same-sex marriage had been bogged down in the legislature for months.

Lastly, Tsai called on everyone in society to show "understanding, tolerance, and respect" of those who hold different opinions from their own. There are a number of groups that oppose same-sex marriage which have staged large-scale rallies over the past year against its legalization. A poll by the Ministry of Justice released in 2015 showed 71 percent of Taiwanese supported marriage equality, while a survey conducted by Trend Survey and Research on behalf of the opposition Kuomintang found 51.7 percent of respondents supported legalizing same-sex marriage, while 43.3 percent disapproved.

Good on several levels -- she didn't dehumanize the opponents of gay marriage even though they have consistently dehumanized gays, and she pointedly asked the legislature to get off its butt and get this passed. Many observers noted that this will provide a shield for legislators who have been dragging their feet. Tsai obviously views herself as the President of everyone in Taiwan. Good on her.

Keep in mind that we do not have gay marriage yet, despite all the celebrating. The Court essentially struck down laws opposing gay marriage, and then gave legislators two years to erect a legal framework for gay marriage. At that point, as I understand it, if the legislature does nothing, gay marriage will be a reality in June of 2019 unless someone changes the Constitution. Couples will simply be able to walk in and register a marriage irrespective of gender. As it should be. But room for compromise mischief remains. As Cole observes in his write-up:

Despite the good news, it could be several months before the legislature turns the amendments into the law of the land, and conservative organizations are expected to escalate their efforts to prevent this from happening. In light of Wednesday’s decision, another option for legislators could be to write a separate piece of legislation permitting civil unions, although this alternative is regarded as discriminatory by many members of the LGBT community and their supporters, who want the same rights, under the same laws, as the rest of the nation’s citizens.

Then with gay marriage the headaches over property, children, and divorce will begin. Why does anyone want to get married? People ask me if I support gay marriage, I say "All marriage should be illegal"... Feeling very Rodney Dangerfield here.

Some people were worried that there might be a move to change the Constitution to prevent gay marriage. Won't happen. First, the KMT made it difficult under the law to get Constitutional change done, and second, that would require legislators to have spines of steel to ram through a change, and most legislators are made of pudding.

Meanwhile the haters were out in full force in opposition to the ruling. BBC refers to these yammerheads as "traditionalists" but there is nothing traditional about their position on gayness and gay marriage, both of which were traditional in Chinese history. Our current anti-gay marriage culture is an aberration of the last couple of centuries, and the anti-gay marriage authoritarian Christianity driving much of the vocal objections here is a post-Enlightenment phenomenon.  J Michael Cole was interviewed in Queerious on the opposition to gay marriage in Taiwan and its relationship to overseas authoritarian Christian movements.

MEDIA: In case you've ever wondered whether BBC was ardently pro-China, just watch how it removes "country" and uses "place" in its updates on gay marriage here. How cowardly is BBC? HongKongFP, based in China, said Taiwan was first country. A net-friend acidly observed of Reuters:

Also bizarre (though not surprising, given past form) that the Reuters report included the totally irrelevant 'which China regards as a renegade province' gambit. WTF does that have to do with a domestic issue like marriage equality? It's like they have OCD: "Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province, has a celebrated annual gay pride parade that showcases the vibrancy of its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community

FURTHER: Ketagalen Media's short report is here.
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The sad case of DPP Justice Minister Chiu Tai-san

Onions. Because Chiu Tai-san makes me cry.

Our DPP Justice Minister revealed himself to be not only a retrograde thinker, but a Han nationalist to boot. Speaking on gay marriage at a hearing that was live streamed, Justice Minister Chiu Tai-san said:

“The Civil Code stipulates that marriage shall be between a man and a woman, and as such it is not unconstitutional. The Constitution guarantees citizens’ right to marry as that between a man and a woman, while marriage between people of the same sex is not covered under the Constitution,” Chiu said.

“For thousands of years in the nation’s history, society has instituted traditions and codes of conduct regarding marriage. Has there ever been a cultural institution or social phenomenon for same-sex marriage?” Chiu said.

“Without a doubt, there has been none,” Chiu said.

He then quoted one section of the Chinese classic I Ching (易經), also known as the Book of Changes, which reads: “With the existence of the earth and the sky, there came all living things. With the existence of the earth and the sky, there came men and women,” which he said illustrates that Chinese marriage traditions have — since ancient times — been based on a union between a man and a woman.

This kind of argument is completely idiotic -- projecting modern institutions into the past in order to legitimate them. Jenna (added: actually her quietly brilliant husband) tracked down this website giving some examples of different kinds of marriages in China over time. Recall that polygamy was common, with not only multiple wives but also concubines. And women marrying a set of brothers was a known marriage form. Any competent anthropologist could give many examples of other forms of marriage not only in China but all over the world.

The issue is exactly the same as in the US, where "conservatives" scream the lie that marriage has always been one man, one woman. Reality is always the opposite of such fantasies. It is not difficult to find the many works that depict the deep roots of homosexuality and same-sex marriage in Chinese culture. Take the introduction to this book, which remarks on the commonality of homosexuality in Chinese culture:

Many times homosexuality acted as an integral part of society, complete with same-sex marriages for both men and women. 

You don't have to know anything about gay marriage in Chinese history to know that if a social conservative is asserting something about marriage and history, he's almost certainly wrong. Indeed, in many Buddhist circles where reincarnation is believed, it is also believed that two souls are fated to marry each other irrespective of sex, which provided religious sanction for homosexual marriage in ancient Chinese society. Of course many regions had their own traditions of gay marriage. Chiu's claims are a perfect melding of idiocy and ignorance.

Why O why can't science and scholarship form the basis of our public discourse and decision-making?

Despite Chiu Tai-san's claim, the ROC Constitution does not mention marriage, as far as I can see. Article 7 guarantees equality before the law, while Article 8 guarantees personal freedom. How you interpret that is up to you. But it seems to me that it is hard to uphold Article 7 yet oppose gay marriage.

Citing the I Ching is unwise, at best. A DPP minister should take the view that Taiwan can form its own traditions, customs, and cultures, and that China should be left behind. Using Chinese historical hokum as the basis for arguments in modern society should never be a DPP practice, it tends to create connections where none are necessary.

Moreover, anti-homosexuality in modern Taiwan has its roots in another discourse -- that of state power and control, the heterosexualization of society, and the faux Confucian morality of the KMT's Party-State. This paper observes:

During the first two decades of Kuomintang (KMT) rule, Taiwan experienced steady economic growth but changes to the political system were not permitted; the corporatist model of KMT rule was omnipresent. Taiwanese society between the 1950s and 1960s could be described as heterosexualized in terms of discourse; “family values” were regarded as deriving directly from a stable Confucian and Chinese tradition and public discourses of same-sex desire were almost non-existent:

...revealing the fundamental truth: that assertions of "family values" are the code language of right-wing nationalist state power and control.

Hence, when Chiu Tai-san marginalized gay marriage (and implicitly, gayness) as "unChinese", he was invoking decades of this rightist, ahistorical, inhuman discourse that helped form the basis of KMT power in Taiwan.

Thanks, Chiu Tai-san. You're a genius.

Imagine if Chiu had taken another view -- that gay marriage was an ancient practice in south China from whence many ancestors of Taiwanese arrived. Imagine if his use of history had been informed, sensitive, and progressive. Imagine if he'd envisioned gay people as human beings like himself....

Total fail on all fronts by Chiu Tai-san.
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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!

EVENT: First Taiwan International Queer Film Festival

The First Taiwan International Queer Film Festival with over 60 films is happening soon (Website and Facebook). Their press release is just a click on READ MORE away...

UPDATE: Good article here.

Controversy over the new MOE curriculum on homosexuality

I linked to this letter in the Taipei Times yesterday and abused its author mildly for being a homophobe, which Readin in the comments correctly chastised me for. The letter itself is rather poorly composed and contains, as I pointed out to Readin in the comments, contradictions and issues that are common in such fact-free thinking -- the kind of thinking that once wanted to prevent women from being able to write letters to the editor and blacks from marrying whites.

But the back-and-forth did get me wondering about what exactly the policy was. Anyone with experience of the educational system here knows that it abhors controversy so it didn't seem likely to me that the policy takes any kind of strongly controversial stance. The Taipei Times reported a couple of weeks ago on the "controversy" caused by the curriculum:

“The contents of the material are very controversial and the ministry would set a very bad example for kids if they are misguided,” Chu told a press conference at the legislature. “The ministry should not put the material into use until all questions about it have been clarified and both teachers and parents are fully prepared for it.”

Chu was unhappy that the material attempts to explain to students from fifth grade up about different sexual orientations, while also telling students how to discover their own sexual orientation.

“Some of the content in the curriculum may better fit high school students,” Taipei City Teachers’ Association chairman Chang Wen-chang (張文昌) said. “As a professional teacher, I think the content is inappropriate for elementary and junior high school students.”

Union of Taipei Parents’ Associations president Lin Hsiao-yi (林曉儀) agreed with Chang.
“We’re not opposed to [discussion] of the gay issue or the ministry’s curriculum. As a parent, I just think that elementary school kids are too young to learn about it and putting it on the curriculum could confuse them,” she said.

Chu, Chang and Lin called on the ministry to revise the material and postpone the implementation of the curriculum.

Ministry of Education official Ko Chin-wei (柯金尉), who represented the ministry at the press conference, said the purpose of teaching about diverse sexual orientations was to allow students to learn to respect the rights of different people from a young age.

“Teachers and parents are worried because they do not fully understand what it is about. We will put more effort into communicating with the groups so that they can better understand why we are implementing this curriculum,” Ko said.

The response from the MOE actually followed the classic government pattern of saying that the issue was not substantive disagreement but merely the Ministry's failure to communicate. This was exactly the stance that Ma and the KMT took on ECFA, for example, and is a great face saver in the face of fundamental disagreement.

One key motivation for the new curriculum is the constant bullying that takes place in Taiwan schools over all sorts of issues, gayness being a prime one. Activists observed:

Taiwan Adolescent Association on Sexualities secretary-general Hsu Fei-kai (許斐凱) said diverse sexual orientation at schools should not be overlooked and discrimination against gays was a serious problem in school.

“Not long ago, a high school lesbian couple committed suicide because their relationship was not tolerated by the school, their classmates or their families,” he said. “If we don’t teach our kids that everyone is equal regardless of their sexual orientation, tragedies like this will just continue to happen.”

Hsu also accused lawmakers and some groups of exaggerated statements about the curriculum.

For example, media reports citing remarks made by lawmakers against the curriculum claimed that part of the education included teaching students how to wash sex toys after their use. “That’s not at all part of the curriculum,” he said.

In addition, many critics of the curriculum spoke as if there would be a separate class for sex -education, Hsu said.

“In reality, under the program teachers would only be asked to mention the importance of respecting people with different sexual orientations, whenever it’s appropriate,” he said.

See that last paragraph, and note that the attacks on the curriculum are, as usual, overblown. There was an excellent commentary in the Taipei Times on the curriculum "controversy."

The problem of anti-gay bigotry is not limited to school but shapes many things in Taiwan society. Because gays can't marry here my gay friends can't enjoy the kind of useful visa I have through my wife (see this USAToday article on the springtime of hope here several years ago, and enjoy the irony of gay marriage being accused of dooming Taiwan for lack of reproduction when today straights have gifted Taiwan with the lowest fertility rate on earth). A sad example: the other day a friend of mine told me about an acquaintance, X, currently in the hospital. X, an unmarried male in his thirties who we are fairly certain is gay, is grossly underweight, and suffers from pneumonia and Kaposi's. What would you diagnose, dear reader? But the hospital hasn't given him an AIDS test (that's one way to reduce expenses and keep the local AIDS rate down!). Essentially, X would rather die a painful, lingering death than out himself as a gay male to his parents.

It's the kind of world in which people would rather die than admit they are gay that the curriculum is aimed at.

ADDED: My friend comments:

As the family prepared to help care for the patient's anal blisters (a sign of HIV infection), the nurse implored them to be careful because he was "likely" HIV positive.

They have not given him an HIV/AIDS test. They continue to look the other way and treat him with steroids so they don't "violate his privacy". His parents shun him and he is being cared for by a few true friends. His boyfriend is unaware X may be HIV+.

It is the ignorance and intolerance of the straight community that makes these good people hide, live and die in the shadows with the feelings of abandonment, fear and shame. It is also the straight community that is truly fixated on how gays fuck than how they live and love.

The problems within the gay community; problems such as depression, anxiety and the effects of the silent battery of hate, can only find a solution when straight people can just quit giving a shit about who other people feel they should be intimate with.

Let everyone feel safe and protected to love. A government policy to support all kinds of people is preferable to one that promotes shame. It's not about the sex.
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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.

Is the Other Candidate Gay?

The China Post published a commentary from a Dr. William Fang on how Tsai Ing-wen, the DPP Chairman, should have dealt with the accusation from DPP traitor Shih Ming-teh that she is gay:

The most effective way for Tsai to deal with the controversy should have been to give a swift and unmistakably clear denial of all the rumors. Tsai's angry refusal to respond for whatever reasons as well as widespread questioning of Shih's motive will only lead to more damaging speculations about her.

Fang's commentary is rather weird in its tone and wording, as if Fang is trying to be ironic and failing miserably, but it does point out that speculation about her sexuality may hurt her in Taiwan's political culture. Contrary to Fang, Tsai's response, taking the high road, I thought was the right one for both her and for the island's political culture. Had Tsai utterly denied the rumors, it would confirmed that this kind of attack on someone's sexuality is both effective and legit. Instead, her response delegitimized this type of attack itself, pointing towards the day when it will be unacceptable to publicly hack on the sexuality of prominent individals in Taiwan.

This attack on Tsai was universally condemned in the Blue and Green press in Taiwan. Focus Taiwan has a sample.

Fang himself seems to be promoting Shih. See this one from 2007 and this piece from March of this year extolling the virtues of Shih, who has become a pathetic self-promoting lunatic. Note that both Shih and Hsu Hsin-liang, both DPP turncoats who went over to the KMT after democratization, are talking about independent candidacies. My, wouldn't that be useful to the KMT to have two DPP turncoats running a campaign that might attract a few pan-green voters in what could be a very tight election! It's the kind of thing that is so useful to the KMT, if it didn't exist, it would have to be invented.....

Lots of people are peeved at this attack on Tsai, but remember this crap?

Chuang also branded KMT presidential hopeful Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) a "sissy," saying he was befuddled by Ma's popularity among female voters. Earlier this week, Chuang accused Taipei City Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) of imposing "blue terror" when the city tried to stop the construction work from proceeding.

When asked if the ministry approved of Chuang's conduct over the last few days, Tu said Chuang is "a model public servant worthy of emulation by all government workers."

Remember the rumors constantly swirling that President Ma is gay (Johnny Neihu had a field day with them)? Chuang was making a coded attack on Ma's sexuality. Same crap Shih Ming-teh pulled this week.

Hopefully when this current flap over Tsai's sexuality fades, then people will remember how utterly childish and medieval this kind of attack is and it will stop, and they will finally realize what a pathetic, cringing Wormtongue Shih Ming-teh has become in what should have been the golden years of a long and honored career of service to the people of Taiwan. 
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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.