Same-sex marriage has been legal in Taiwan since 24 May 2019, making it the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. On 24 May 2017, the Constitutional Court ruled that the marriage law was unconstitutional, holding that the constitutional rights to equality and freedom of marriage guarantee same-sex couples the right to marry under the Taiwanese Constitution. The ruling gave the Legislative Yuan two years to bring the law into compliance, after which registration of such marriages would come into force automatically. In November 2018, the Taiwanese electorate voted in favor of referendums aimed at preventing the recognition of same-sex marriages within the existing Civil Code. In response, the government confirmed it would not amend the Civil Code but would instead prepare a separate law for same-sex couples.
On 20 February 2019, a draft bill was published that would allow same-sex couples to establish a "permanent union of intimate and exclusive nature for the purpose of living a common life." The Executive Yuan passed it the following day, sending it to the Legislative Yuan for fast-tracked review. The bill was passed on 17 May, and President Tsai Ing-wen signed it on 22 May, with the law taking effect on 24 May 2019. In 2023, same-sex couples were granted the right to adopt. In 2024, cross-strait couples were also granted the right to marry, subject to the same complex legal procedures as heterosexual couples.
The Taiwanese Civil Code defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and still contains many gender-specific terms like "husband and wife". The law governing assisted reproduction limits access to ART, including IVF, to legally married heterosexual couples and specifically excludes same-sex female couples and single women.
Partnership registration
Same-sex couples are able to legally register their relationship through a special "partnership registration" () in 18 of Taiwan's cities and counties that account for 94 percent of the country's population. However, the rights afforded in these partnerships are very limited; there are as many as 498 exclusive rights related to marriage that include property rights, social welfare and medical care. A special certificate is issued to the couple, providing the partners with some limited rights, notably the ability to consent to surgery for a partner and parental leave. Requirements vary by local government, with some requiring both partners to be residents of the city or county.
In May 2015, the special municipality of Kaohsiung announced a plan to allow same-sex couples to mark their partners in civil documents for reference purposes, although it would not be applicable to the healthcare sector. This policy of "partnership registrations" went into force on May 20. Taiwan LGBT Rights Advocacy, an NGO, criticized the plan as merely a measure to "make fun of" the community without having any substantive effect. In June 2015, Taipei became the second special municipality in Taiwan to open registration for same-sex couples, followed by Taichung on 1 October 2015. In December 2015, the city governments of Taipei and Kaohsiung announced an agreement to share their same-sex partnership registries with each other, effective from 1 January 2016, allowing for partnerships registered in one special municipality to be recognized in the other. This marked the first time that same-sex partnerships had been recognized outside of single-municipality boundaries.
Activists protested on 18 December 2015 inside the Tainan City Council to lobby for a similar registry in Tainan. On 27 January 2016, Mayor Lai Ching-te announced that same-sex couples would be allowed to officially register their partnership in the city, starting on 1 February 2016. New Taipei also opened registration for same-sex couples on 1 February 2016. On 23 February 2016, Mayor Twu Shiing-jer announced that Chiayi City would be following suit on 1 March 2016. Chiayi City became the first of the three provincial cities to recognize same-sex couples. On 28 January 2016, the Mayor of Taoyuan, Cheng Wen-tsan, said that he was open to the possibility of a registry. On 7 March 2016, Tang Hui-chen, director of the Department of Civil Affairs at the Taoyuan City Government, said that based on "gender equality, basic human rights and respect for same-sex relationships", the government had decided to allow same-sex couples to register as partners. The registration began on 14 March 2016, making Taoyuan the sixth as well as the last special municipality in Taiwan to officially recognize same-sex couples.
On 18 March 2016, the Changhua County Government declared that based on respect and tolerance for same-sex couples, Changhua County had decided to open registration for same-sex couples. Couples who wish to register must be at least twenty years old and at least one partner must be resident in the county. The first couple registered the day the registration came into effect, on 1 April 2016. Hsinchu County also established a partnership registration that day, followed by Yilan County on 20 May 2016, and Chiayi County on 20 October 2016.
On 26 May 2017, the Ministry of the Interior formally asked all local governments to open registration for same-sex couples. By 6 June, Hsinchu City, Kinmen County, Lienchiang County, Miaoli County, Nantou County and Pingtung County had announced their intention to comply, with household registration services to open later that month or early July.More cities and counties in Taiwan introduce gay partnership registry Focus Taiwan News Channel Keelung City followed suit on 3 July 2017, and by the next day three same-sex couples had registered in the city. On 3 July 2017, the Ministry of the Interior upgraded the nationwide household registration system to incorporate information about same-sex partnership registration into personal profiles.
+Availability of same-sex partnership registrations by administrative divisions of TaiwanDivisionStarting date DivisionStarting date DivisionStarting date Changhua County1 April 2016 Kinmen County3 July 2017 Tainan City1 February 2016 Chiayi City1 March 2016 Lienchiang County3 July 2017 Taipei City17 June 2015 Chiayi County20 October 2016 Miaoli County3 July 2017 Taitung County Hsinchu City3 July 2017 Nantou County26 June 2017 南投縣各鄉、鎮、市戶政事務所受理申請（刪除）同性伴侶「所內註記」作業方式 Taoyuan City14 March 2016 Hsinchu County1 April 2016 New Taipei City1 February 2016 Yilan County20 May 2016 Hualien County Penghu County Yunlin County Kaohsiung City20 May 2015 Pingtung County29 June 2017Available in 18 out of 22 divisions Keelung City3 July 2017 Taichung City1 October 2015
Hualien County, Penghu County, Taitung County and Yunlin County did not open registration for same-sex couples. In September 2017, activists protested in Hualien and Taitung counties for the opening of registration services for same-sex couples.
Since the legalization of same-sex marriage in Taiwan on May 24, 2019, partnership registration is no longer available to Taiwanese couples and couples consisting of a Taiwanese national and a citizen of a country or territory where same-sex marriage is legal. Couples who have registered can choose to retain their partnership status or convert their union into a marriage. On May 25, 2020, the National Immigration Agency opened same-sex partnership registration to foreign couples. Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Chwen-jing announced in May 2020 that the Ministry of the Interior was likely to abolish the partnership registration system in the near future, noting that many couples had converted their partnership into marriage by that time and that the system "effectively served no purpose anymore". Chen announced that the Ministry would wait until more couples had converted their relationship into marriage before taking a formal decision.
Same-sex marriage
Early history In 2003, the Executive Yuan proposed legislation opening marriage to same-sex couples, but the bill was rejected in 2006 and was not passed into law because of majority opposition from legislators, which included both members of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Kuomintang (KMT).
In August 2012, two women participated in what the media called "Taiwan's first same-sex marriage ceremony". Around the same time, President Ma Ying-jeou, chairman of the governing Kuomintang, restated his respect for LGBT rights but said that public support was needed before the government could approve a same-sex marriage law. The Ministry of Justice's Department of Legal Affairs commissioned a study on legal recognitions of same-sex unions in Canada, Germany and France in 2012, but after pressure from critics, commissioned a further study for 2013 on the state of same-sex relationships in Asian countries for comparison. In 2012, Su Tseng-chang, chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party, expressed support for same-sex marriage. Despite some division within the party on the issue, DPP's victorious presidential candidate for the January 2016 election, Tsai Ing-wen, announced her support for same-sex marriage in November 2015. She was the first major party candidate to express support for same-sex marriage.
In March 2012, a same-sex couple, Ching-Hsueh Chen and Chih-Wei Kao, applied to the Taipei High Administrative Court to have their relationship recognized as a marriage. The first hearing took place on April 10, 2012. The couple was accompanied by their mothers and received personal blessings from the judges for their love, although the judges said that this would not have any repercussion in their final ruling. The next hearing was set to take place a month later, and the court was due to hand down a decision on December 20. Instead, the court reneged on a ruling, opting to send the case to the Council of Grand Justices in the Judicial Yuan for a constitutional interpretation. The case was then voluntarily withdrawn by the couple due to the hesitancy of the judiciary in taking on the case.
On 25 October 2013, a petition-initiated bill to revise the Civil Code to allow for same-sex marriage was introduced by 23 DPP lawmakers to the Legislative Yuan. It was immediately referred to the Yuan's Judiciary, Organic Laws and Statutes Committee for review and a possible first reading. On 22 December 2014, the proposed amendment to the Civil Code was due to go under review by the committee. If the amendment had passed the committee stage, it would have then been voted on at the plenary session of the Legislative Yuan in 2015. The amendment, called the "marriage equality amendment", would have inserted gender-neutral terms in the Civil Code replacing ones that implied heterosexual couples. It would have also allowed same-sex couples to adopt children. DPP member Yu Mei-nu expressed support for the amendment as did more than 20 other DPP lawmakers as well as two legislators from the Taiwan Solidarity Union and one each from the KMT and the People First Party (PFP). On 28 June 2015, a senior official from the Ministry of Justice stated that same-sex marriage would remain illegal in Taiwan "for now". Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Ming-tang said "...in Taiwan, the issue of legalizing same-sex marriage remains extremely controversial...so we should not consider it for now". He added that while the Ministry of Justice opposed measures that would legalize same-sex marriages outright, it would support a more gradual approach, including offering better protection to same-sex couples under current laws, such as their rights to equal medical treatment and taxation.
In October 2015, same-sex couples were allowed to participate at the Taoyuan City Government's public mass wedding ceremony for the first time. Taipei followed suit one day later. On 28 October 2015, the Taichung City Government announced that same-sex couples would be permitted to participate in the following year's mass wedding ceremony.
2016 new administration and parliament