Taiwanese-Chinese same-sex couples can now legally register their marriages in Taiwan, Taipei announced Thursday, recognising cross-Strait unions for the first time.
Taiwan has long been at the forefront of Asia’s burgeoning LGBTQ rights movement, becoming the first territory in the region to legalize marriage equality in 2019.
But tensions between Taiwan and China – which claims the self-ruled island as part of its territory and maintains daily military movements around it – have prevented cross-border couples from enjoying that right.
Heterosexual couples with a Chinese spouse and a Taiwanese spouse face a more complicated procedure than other international couples, as they must first marry abroad and then undergo an interview in Taiwan before registering their marriage there.
“From now on, same-sex couples can be subject to the same rules as heterosexual couples,” Liang Wen-chieh, a spokesman for Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, which handles cross-Strait issues, said at a regular briefing on Thursday.
They will first have to legally marry in one of the 35 countries that recognize marriage equality and, after presenting their marriage certificate and other documents, “relevant agencies will conduct interviews with the couple,” he explained. “Only after passing the interview at the border (at the airport and ports) will they be able to enter the country to register their marriage. This is our current principle for cross-Strait marriages,” he said.
Mr Liang added that the rules governing cross-Strait heterosexual marriages had long been in place “to prevent fake cross-border marriages and avoid national security and social order issues”.
With Thursday’s announcement, “the government is maintaining the principle of equal treatment between same-sex marriage and heterosexual marriage,” he added.
The island currently has some 360,000 Chinese spouses of Taiwanese citizens. They must wait six years to apply for Taiwanese citizenship, twice as long as nationals of other countries.
Separated from mainland China by a narrow 180-kilometer waterway, Taiwan has its own government, military and currency. Beijing has said it will never renounce the use of force to bring the democratic island under its control.
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