Taiwan expands adoption rights for same-sex couples

TAIPEI – Taiwan’s Parliament passed an amendment on Tuesday allowing gay couples to jointly adopt children, a move hailed by activists as “another big step forward” for marriage equality.

Taiwan is at the vanguard of Asia’s burgeoning LGBT+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rights movement,

becoming in 2019 the first place in the region to legalise marriage equality.

But same-sex couples still faced restrictions, such as being unable to jointly adopt children.

While individuals in Taiwan were allowed to adopt regardless of sexual orientation, those in same-sex marriages could not both be legal parents unless the child was one partner’s biological offspring.

On Tuesday – the eve of the fourth anniversary of Taiwan’s marriage equality law – Parliament passed the amendment removing those restrictions, with lawmaker Fan Yun hailing the cross-party support for the Bill.

The amendment “not only ensures the protection of children’s rights but also meets their best interest”, said Ms Fan, who was draped in a rainbow flag.

“In the future, spouses and parents, regardless of gender and sexual orientation, can have full legal protection.”

The amendment comes after a family court in southern Kaohsiung City in 2022 ruled in favour of a married gay man seeking to share parenthood of his husband’s adoptive child – the first verdict of its kind.

Advocacy group Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights said in a statement: “After four years of hard work, today the Parliament finally passed the (Bill for) adoption without blood relationship by same-sex couples.”

The group also hailed Taiwan’s recent recognition of transnational same-sex marriages – a move made in January by then Premier Su Tseng-chang to lift restrictions for international couples.

Previously, foreigners were not allowed to wed their Taiwanese partners if they came from territories banning same-sex marriage – which is much of Asia.

But one of Mr Su’s last acts in office was to recognise such unions – including for couples from Hong Kong and Macau, though not mainland China, as they fall under a different set of regulations in Taiwan.

“Following the full recognition of transnational same-sex marriage in January, Taiwan has taken another big step towards marriage equality,” the alliance said of the adoption amendment.

Taiwan is home to a thriving LGBT+ community.

A record 200,000 people attended a pride march in Taipei in 2019 to celebrate the legalisation of same-sex marriage.

That law came about after Taiwan’s top court ruled that denying same-sex couples the right to marry was discriminatory and unconstitutional.

Over the next two years, at least 7,000 same-sex couples tied the knot, according to 2021 data from the Taiwan Interior Ministry.

The alliance said on Tuesday that it would continue to push for more rights for same-sex couples, including recognition of Taiwanese-Chinese marriages. AFP