Taiwan accepts same-sex marriage, so why not adoption?

This year, in a landmark legal case, the two men became the first same-sex couple on the island to legally adopt a child neither of them are related to.Now they’re living their family dream with daughter Joujou, 4, in the southern city of Kaohsiung, in an apartment decorated with rainbow flags and family photos. Yet, while their family life is happy, their hard-fought court victory is bittersweet. While the court made an exception for the couple, the law they challenged remains on the statute books and continues to restrict the civil liberties of other same-sex couples — staining, they say, the island’s reputation as one of Asia’s most progressive jurisdictions when it comes to Freddy Lim, an independent member of parliament in Taiwan who advocates for LGBTQ rights, said the loophole arose because at the time the law was changed, society still “faced a lot of opposition from anti-LGBTQ groups,” so the government focused “only on legalizing marriage, but not rights relating to child adoption.” However, Lim believes that since then attitudes have changed sufficiently for the law to change again. In May, Lim and a bipartisan group of lawmakers proposed updating the law with a bill he hopes can be passed by the end of the year.”If a society treats people differently based on their sexual orientation, it must have a strong reason out of the public interest. But there is none, so it is clearly a form of discrimination,” Lim said. Wang said he hopes the law can be amended as soon as possible so that other couples can enjoy the same rights as him and Chen.”There are many families who are afraid of filing petitions in court because they do not want to attract attention from society or the media,” Wang said. “If the law remains unchanged, many could be afraid to stand up for their rights.” There is also Taiwan’s reputation to think about — not only as an enlightened jurisdiction for LGBTQ rights, but its image as a free and democratic beacon in the Asia-Pacific region.”When the international community looks at Taiwan, we are often regarded as the first line of defense against authoritarianism,” said the lawmaker Lim. “But if we are to truly portray ourselves as free, equal and democratic … then we must recognize and solve injustices in our society — and LGBTQ rights are an important part of this.”