Same-sex marriage in Taiwan

On September 9, 2013, a crowd of 1,200 gathered in Taipei participating in a mock wedding banquet. The rally took place outside Taiwan’s Presidential Office Building and was meant to support the same-sex marriage bill that was about to be sent to the parliament for voting. The supporters sat around tables decorated in red, as if they were having a wedding ceremony. They had dinner out in the open and watched a video of celebrities and countrymen showing their support to this activity. 

This event was promoted by a group called Taiwan Alliance, which has become pretty active recently in the 21st century. They recruit people who advocate for gay marriage, but not just the gays and lesbians in particular. Together they hail for the approval of same sex marriage in Taiwan through activities and different strategies. The reason why they organized the event in the form of a wedding banquet was that they sincerely hoped that every human being, regardless of his or her sexual orientation, could have equal rights to get married and have family. 

This isn’t the first time that Taiwan Alliance held a gathering or parade demanding the approval of same-sex marriage. They have been putting lots of effort urging the government to make the same-sex unions legal. Recalling the situation of last year, more than 50,000 gays and lesbians marched on Ketagalan Boulevard to push for the legalization of same sex marriage. However, the parliament stalled the bill and announced that they will be needing more time to consider the whole issue. While the Taiwan Alliance tried hard to persuade the officials, various religious groups of different faiths raised their voices in opposition of same sex marriage. They criticized and ridiculed the Taiwan Alliance, some even proposed that same-sex marriage eventually results in the destruction of human society. 

As opposing remarks flew all over the place, Taiwan Alliance stood their ground and made no further response. Despite all the slander, distrust and pressure coming from the public, the leader of Taiwan Alliance Stan Shih stayed optimistic. He reckoned that a global trend of recognizing same-sex marriages is starting to take shape, after many European countries had voted pass the bill recently, and he was hoping that Taiwan would soon follow their step. Therefore, the percentage of public support on same-sex marriage in Taiwan may as well enhance. 

Taiwan, the first thing that comes to our minds is a nation of politic debates and great night market foods. What about the real deal that concerns the citizenship and personal rights? For the last few decades, we made no improvement on the issues of sexism and homophobia. Homosexuals always get the worst of all the unfair treatments: contempt from the others, despise, loads of personal assault and the prohibition to get married. Deep down in my heart, I believe that same-sex marriage should be legalized because banning it is unfair. Love is all that matters in marriage, and gay families have certain household values that some straight marriages lack.

On the other hand, proscribing an issue doesn't make it go away. It only serves as a rain check that postpones the problem, and roll it up into a bigger one through time. Our Constitution clearly states that everyone is equal and deserves the same rights, which of course, includes the homosexuals. Therefore, to make this issue illegal is to oppose the Constitution, and will be frowned upon as a form of discrimination. Homophobic abuse and ridicule on gay citizens mostly come from stereotypes and these people are degraded, receiving excessive bullying and teasing in classes or at work. However, we don’t see our government doing a thing to fix the situation, or do they think that the complication would just miraculously resolve one day, by leaving it unattended? What I don’t get is that, gays are just being themselves! We are all created equal, so why can't we all just try to get along and provide them with the rights that they deserved?

Providing same-sex couples with the same legal and social recognition of their relationships in no way infringes upon the rights of others. It’s more about extending the privileges that was already enjoyed by the majority to the minority. Further, lifting the ban on same-sex marriage can better protect the rights of people in general, thus no one will be excluded. On the other hand, same-sex attracted individuals are not rare species throughout the world and they don’t exist on the fringe of society. These people could be someone’s father, mother, son or daughter. But to have a family member mistreated individually by the community can negatively impact the family as a whole. Those who argue against same-sex marriage by stating that “it could affect the family value” seem to have overlooked this problem.

And not to mention the bad influences on the homosexual couples as they lack the opportunity to formalize their relationships. In a “normal” relationship of the heterosexual couple, they strengthen and tie their relations into a thicker knot by performing marriages, going on honeymoon and living together. Step by step the two united as a whole. However, law forbids the homosexual couple to do the above things, which sends a message that their relationships are not of equivalent standard and that they are second class citizens. As same-sex sexuality is no more a choice than heterosexuality, restricting marriage to different-sex couples will not stop committed relationships between members of the same sex. What it will do is continue to promote prejudice and intolerance among the two groups, which are both formed of our countrymen, and abided by the same citizenry responsibilities as a Taiwanese.

It’s already 2013 and most Taiwanese are still conservative and extremely down to earth. They are offering a number of ridiculous and shallow reasons, which are full of nonsense, just to oppose gay marriage. To take one for example: Marriage is for procreation and giving birth to the next generation. Since there will be no way for gay people to reproduce on their own, allowing gay marriage is increasing the number of DINK families (Double Income No Kid) indirectly. Therefore the population slowly decreases until the entire human race is grinded to zero. This is one of the moronic reasons why gay and lesbians shouldn’t get married, discussed and widely agreed by many anti-gay groups in Taiwan. But if this is the case, how does one explain the situation of infertile couples? “I’m sorry, please surrender over your wedding rings since your husband is sexually impotent and cannot procreate.” Just picturing the scenario makes me laugh.

Here’s another interesting reason why many say that same-sex marriage in Taiwan shouldn’t be made legal: Same-sex couples can’t produce the “right” environment for raising children. Let’s check out the so called “right” environment in today’s world: a society full of murderers, convicts and even child molesters who are still given the right to get married and raise kids. We see no law banning those people from going on honeymoons and having offspring. Even those felons are allowed to marry freely and procreate! So if children were truly the priority in this issue, why aren’t the advocates of this argument doing anything to prohibit the above categories of people from raising children? The fact is that most gay couples are just as good as many straight couples when it comes to raising children, as many studies have shown. The kids they are raising can be adopted or even from their failed attempts at a heterosexual marriage. Psychologists have proven with several theories and researches that what makes the difference is the love from parents, rather than their gender or sexual orientation. And homosexual people are as capable of loving children as anyone else.

A few other opposing ideas will be: Gay relationships are immoral and thus violate the holiness of marriages; homosexuality may be promoted at schools if legalized. But says who? Gay marriage has been legalized in several countries throughout the world, and most gay couples are just doing fine, setting perfect examples and pioneering for the others. And so far, there has been no significant instance that homosexuality is promoted in public, and I guess most gays and lesbians at schools are busily hiding their sexual orientation rather than showing it off, unless they intend to get bullied. 

Most of the reasons that people oppose gay marriage are just a cover-up for their real fear deep inside. The truth why many are against it is probably because: People are not comfortable with the idea, it offends the central ideas of many religions, and, last but not least, some people fear it. The fact that people aren’t comfortable with the idea of homosexuality stems primarily from the promotion of heterosexual marriage through the centuries, and that a marriage between members of the same sex should be considered immoral and ludicrous. Therefore we follow the traditions and customs left by our ancestors, marrying people of the opposite gender. Same-sex marriage is known to offend mainly Christian denominations and most branches of Islam. Other than that, central ideas in other religions mention nothing about opposing homosexuality.

As we have seen, the arguments against gay marriage don’t really hold up to close scrutiny. The real reasons of all the oppositions are rather silly, irrational , based on ignorance and faulty assumptions. Imagine waking up one day to a world that’s completely opposite from the world we went to sleep in, which means gay people are now straight and all of the straight people are indeed gay. How would it make the heterosexual people feel, once they’ve acknowledged that their rights to get married were pried away overnight? I don’t have to think twice about the number of protests, riots and turmoil that would be waged. And by seeing it from the gay people’s point of view, it just occurred to us how unfair we have been treating them. We are equals in this world whether we are Black, White, Yellow, Latino, Indian, or any other race, skin color as well. But why should we not be equals based on sexual orientation?

It’s already the 21st century, many decades away from the era of slavery, empirical dynasties and hierarchies; it’s a time in which we should be progressing and looking past others’ differences, to learn from our past mistakes of injustice imposed on other groups and weaklings, and accepting people for who they are. As Taiwanese, it’s pretty clear that we haven’t been progressing much as a society, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many issues about mistreatments and unfairness from the public. A society that does not grant the same rights to a group of people as the rest is dividing its people into categories of inferiors and superiors, which may result in the eruption of some conflicts.

Therefore, we should legalize same sex marriage and view homosexuals as our equals, despite many surrounding oppositions and criticisms. I believe we need to change the world’s current state for future generations. We’ve always feared that different religions were going to clash, but most of them are coexisting and doing peacefully well today; Whites, Blacks, Asians and people of other races have also come very far to overcome the differences in each other’s tradition and culture. If it is possible to overcome such fierce obstacles, then we should be confident in conquering the boundary obstructing gay marriages. 

Imagine a neighborhood with a park. Children are playing together, laughing and running, and parents are watching with amused expressions booming on their faces. Among these parents is a same sex couple. The couple is smiling with the rest of the parents. A little girl runs up to the couple, hugs them both, and begins telling them about her day. She takes the hands of her parents without thinking twice that anything is strange or wrong about the scene… This is what legalizing same sex marriage would do: providing a peaceful society. It would smooth the relationships between people, improve the order of Taiwan society, and it is the only choice that is ethical and tolerant.

(2038 words)