The people say no, parliament says yes anyway
In 2018, Taiwan voted against marriage equality. Six months later it came anyway, the first in all of Asia.
On 24 November 2018, millions of people in Taiwan went to the polls. Local elections were actually due. But the ballot also contained ten referendum questions, and half of them concerned the rights of queer people.
The impetus had come from conservative Christian groups. They wanted to put the brakes on a Constitutional Court ruling from the spring of the previous year: excluding same-sex couples from marriage violates the constitution. Parliament was given two years to correct this. The opponents put three measures to the vote. They wanted to restrict marriage in the Civil Code to a man and a woman and to keep queer topics out of school lessons. Activists countered with two measures of their own.
The campaign was tough. Rumours about the supposed consequences of marriage equality circulated, and the opponents received support from US organisations such as the National Organization for Marriage. The result was clear. Around two thirds rejected opening marriage in the Civil Code, and all the conservative measures passed. Amnesty International spoke of a bitter setback for human rights.
The vote did not change the constitutional ruling, however. The court's deadline was still running. The government therefore chose a middle way: no amended Civil Code, but a separate law for same-sex couples. In May 2019, on the International Day Against Homophobia of all days, parliament approved it. Taiwan thus became the first country in Asia where two men or two women may marry.
Legislator Yu Mei-nu, who had campaigned for equality for years, later wrote that the referendum campaign had deeply divided society. Taiwan was also the only country to have taken all three routes: the courts, a referendum and parliament. In the end, the constitution had the last word.