TAIPEI: Taiwan’s top court ruled in favour of gay marriage on Wednesday, a landmark decision that paves the way for the island to become the first place in Asia to legalise same-sex unions. It gave the government two years to implement the ruling. Momentum has been growing behind the push for equal marriage rights, with Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen openly supporting the campaign. But there has also been anger among conservative groups, who have staged mass rallies against any change in the law.

The constitutional court said if parliament does not make the change within two years, same-sex couples could register to marry regardless, based on its interpretation. Currently Taiwan’s Civil Code stipulates an agreement to marry can only be made between a man and a woman. “The current provisions of the marriage chapter do not allow two persons of the same sex to create a permanent union of an intimate and exclusive nature for the committed purpose of managing a life together. This is obviously a gross legislative flaw,” the court said in a statement.

For Taiwan’s pioneering gay rights campaigner, Chi Chia-wei, one of the petitioners who brought the case to the constitutional court, it was the culmination of 30 years of activism. “I’m leaping with joy like a bird,” Chi, 59, said. “I hope parliament will prioritise the bill instead of dragging it on for another two years.” The other petitioner was the Taipei city government, which has been rejecting marriage applications by same-sex couples and was seeking clarification of the law.

Activists around the region welcomed the ruling as calls for marriage equality gain strength in a number of countries around Asia, including South Korea and Japan. A panel of 14 grand justices made the ruling — a majority of 10 was needed. Only two judges dissented. The court said the physical and psychological need for permanent unions was “equally essential to homosexuals and heterosexuals, given the importance of the freedom of marriage to the sound development of personality and safeguarding of human dignity”. Rights group Amnesty International urged the government to act quickly. “As today’s ruling makes clear, whoever you love, everyone is entitled to the same human rights and equal protection under the law,” it said.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2017