Taiwan couple in same-sex Buddhist wedding
Purchase this article for republication
Buy SPH photos
Ms You Ya-ting, left, and her partner Huang Mei-yu stamp their names in front of a statue of Buddha in the prayer hall as they are married in the first Taiwan same sex Buddhist ceremonial wedding in Taoyuan, Taiwan, on Saturday, Aug 11, 2012. Rights groups hope that it will help make the island become the first place in Asia to legalise gay marriage. -- PHOTO: AP
TAOYUAN, Taiwan (AFP) - Two women tied the knot on Saturday in Taiwan's first same-sex Buddhist wedding, a move rights groups hope will help make the island become the first place in Asia to legalise gay marriage.
Ms Fish Huang and her partner Ms You Ya-ting, both wearing traditional white bridal gowns, said "I do" in front of a Buddha statue and exchanged prayer beads rather than rings in a monastery in Taoyuan, in northern Taiwan.
Nearly 300 Buddhists chanted sutras to seek blessings for the couple, both aged 30.
Ms Shih Chao-hui, a female Buddhist master who presided over the ritual, hailed it as a historic moment.
