Zürcher Nachrichten - Forbidden love: Taiwan's gay couples seek foreign marriage equality

EUR -
AED 4.025438
AFN 78.95839
ALL 99.102877
AMD 431.181992
ANG 1.961979
AOA 1003.890158
ARS 1184.765148
AUD 1.813586
AWG 1.97271
AZN 1.856256
BAM 1.955265
BBD 2.226591
BDT 133.983331
BGN 1.955265
BHD 0.415686
BIF 3277.602972
BMD 1.09595
BND 1.474297
BOB 7.619915
BRL 6.405394
BSD 1.102698
BTN 94.079252
BWP 15.358797
BYN 3.608812
BYR 21480.621092
BZD 2.215094
CAD 1.559263
CDF 3148.664282
CHF 0.944431
CLF 0.02729
CLP 1047.223391
CNY 7.980215
CNH 7.994938
COP 4582.94572
CRC 557.847326
CUC 1.09595
CUP 29.042676
CVE 110.23483
CZK 25.25683
DJF 196.376255
DKK 7.461443
DOP 69.64094
DZD 146.035033
EGP 55.788032
ERN 16.439251
ETB 145.347321
FJD 2.537011
FKP 0.848847
GBP 0.850992
GEL 3.013517
GGP 0.848847
GHS 17.092322
GIP 0.848847
GMD 78.35965
GNF 9543.388125
GTQ 8.510671
GYD 230.706859
HKD 8.520355
HNL 28.214278
HRK 7.531037
HTG 144.29051
HUF 405.950714
IDR 18351.683683
ILS 4.102536
IMP 0.848847
INR 93.736057
IQD 1444.604634
IRR 46139.49765
ISK 144.852118
JEP 0.848847
JMD 173.912403
JOD 0.776919
JPY 161.153959
KES 142.530992
KGS 95.094267
KHR 4414.791741
KMF 493.720804
KPW 986.355059
KRW 1599.54962
KWD 0.337323
KYD 0.918948
KZT 559.116978
LAK 23885.462925
LBP 98806.258284
LKR 326.960516
LRD 220.549639
LSL 21.028445
LTL 3.236056
LVL 0.662929
LYD 5.33354
MAD 10.502326
MDL 19.485667
MGA 5113.600488
MKD 61.518163
MMK 2300.773709
MNT 3844.693563
MOP 8.828084
MRU 43.977964
MUR 48.956393
MVR 16.875336
MWK 1912.176667
MXN 22.397607
MYR 4.862766
MZN 70.042408
NAD 21.028445
NGN 1679.894639
NIO 40.578894
NOK 11.801629
NPR 150.526803
NZD 1.958628
OMR 0.421635
PAB 1.102798
PEN 4.052091
PGK 4.551754
PHP 62.891089
PKR 309.568976
PLN 4.253336
PYG 8840.580472
QAR 4.0198
RON 4.97777
RSD 117.117947
RUB 92.974554
RWF 1589.165071
SAR 4.110175
SBD 9.114284
SCR 15.726868
SDG 658.111706
SEK 10.951061
SGD 1.474706
SHP 0.861245
SLE 24.932802
SLL 22981.52588
SOS 630.227517
SRD 40.162737
STD 22683.953439
SVC 9.649359
SYP 14249.363507
SZL 21.036243
THB 37.71384
TJS 12.003415
TMT 3.835825
TND 3.376876
TOP 2.566821
TRY 41.607529
TTD 7.469956
TWD 36.360884
TZS 2949.992633
UAH 45.388378
UGX 4030.896807
USD 1.09595
UYU 46.647233
UZS 14248.100519
VES 76.893516
VND 28280.991188
VUV 133.834699
WST 3.068196
XAF 655.777524
XAG 0.037037
XAU 0.000361
XCD 2.96186
XDR 0.815577
XOF 655.777524
XPF 119.331742
YER 269.220375
ZAR 20.960319
ZMK 9864.878247
ZMW 30.573632
ZWL 352.895471
  • RIO

    -3.7600

    54.67

    -6.88%

  • SCS

    -0.0600

    10.68

    -0.56%

  • CMSC

    0.0300

    22.29

    +0.13%

  • JRI

    -0.8600

    11.96

    -7.19%

  • CMSD

    0.1600

    22.83

    +0.7%

  • BCE

    0.0500

    22.71

    +0.22%

  • BCC

    0.8100

    95.44

    +0.85%

  • BTI

    -2.0600

    39.86

    -5.17%

  • NGG

    -3.4600

    65.93

    -5.25%

  • GSK

    -2.4800

    36.53

    -6.79%

  • AZN

    -5.4600

    68.46

    -7.98%

  • RBGPF

    69.0200

    69.02

    +100%

  • VOD

    -0.8700

    8.5

    -10.24%

  • BP

    -2.9600

    28.38

    -10.43%

  • RYCEF

    -1.5500

    8.25

    -18.79%

  • RELX

    -3.2800

    48.16

    -6.81%

Forbidden love: Taiwan's gay couples seek foreign marriage equality
Forbidden love: Taiwan's gay couples seek foreign marriage equality / Photo: Sam YEH - AFP/File

Forbidden love: Taiwan's gay couples seek foreign marriage equality

Taiwan's LGBTQ community celebrated the third year of gay marriage being legal this week, but for Vincent Chuang it was a bittersweet reminder that he still cannot wed because he fell in love with a foreigner.

Text size:

Socially progressive Taiwan is at the vanguard of Asia's gay rights movement, and became the first in the region to legalise same-sex unions on May 17, 2019.

But the law still contains restrictions that heterosexual couples do not face, including limits on which foreigners same-sex couples can wed.

Under the current rules, Taiwanese nationals can only marry those from the roughly 30 countries and territories where same-sex marriage is also legal.

Activists say that discriminates against most transnational couples and keeps them apart, especially during the pandemic, which has seen partners unable to cross borders and enter Taiwan as dependants or spouses.

For Chuang, a 36-year-old teacher, the enforced split from his Filipino partner Andrew Espera has been painful.

"We are just two persons who love each other and who want to be with each other. We are not asking for anything extravagant, only this small right," he told AFP.

Chuang met Espera, a cook, six years ago during a trip to the Philippines.

"He was a chef at the bed and breakfast place I was staying. It was love at first sight," he recalled.

The pandemic forced the couple into a video call relationship, with Espera teaching his partner Tagalog and cooking as they tried various ways to be reunited.

They almost gave up until Espera eventually secured a student visa and they were finally reunited this week. But both feel they have been denied a basic right given to heterosexuals.

"We are hoping and praying for this, (that) Taiwan can accept us, accept our relationship and allow us to be legalised partners even though my country is yet to legalise same-sex marriage," Espera, 31, told AFP.

- 'Missing piece' -

The Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights says some 470 transnational same-sex couples currently wish to get married but are unable.

The advocacy group has launched multiple legal battles to push for full marital recognition involving foreigners.

So far they have won three cases. But the rulings only apply to the couples in question, meaning anyone who wants to follow in their footsteps would need to launch the same time-consuming legal battle.

Alliance secretary general Chien Chih-chieh said Taiwan's government often "basks in the fame of being Asia's first" to legalise gay marriage.

"But there is still an obvious missing piece that needs to be mended."

Government employee Lee Wei-cheng last saw his partner, a 33-year-old from Myanmar, when they joined a huge 2019 Pride march in Taiwan that drew a record crowd of 200,000 to celebrate gay marriage legalisation.

Since then, they have been kept separated by both the pandemic and last year's coup in Myanmar.

Every day Lee, 31, worries for the safety of his partner, who is ethnic Karen, amid ongoing fighting between a Karen armed group and junta troops.

"We hope to live together in Taiwan and we thought getting married would be the easiest way, but we are still unable to do it," he told AFP.

"We've been separated for three years and we feel so helpless. As Taiwanese, I should have the right to marry whom I want to marry, but I've been deprived of that right -- the freedom of marriage".

Malaysian Tan Bee Guat has been living in Taipei on a student visa for six years in order to be with her partner Lai Kai-li, but the couple laments that their future is forever in limbo without a legal marriage.

"I was happy and feeling hopeful when Taiwan legalised gay marriage because it's unthinkable in Malaysia, not even after 50 years," Tan said in an interview in their rented apartment.

The couple is struggling financially, having to mostly rely on 39-year-old Lai's income as an independent publisher, because Tan as a foreign student is only allowed to work a maximum of 20 hours a week.

"I am losing faith and I am tired. I am already in my 40s but I don't have a career, I don't have money," Tan said.

But the campaign to secure full equal rights must continue, they argued.

"We are treated differently because of our sexual orientation," said Lai. "This is discrimination".

R.Bernasconi--NZN