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Ting Tse-yan, right, places the wedding ring on his Macanese spouse Guzifer Leong at a news conference in Taipei yesterday after the couple registered their marriage. Photo: CNA

2021/08/14 03:00

/ AFP, TAIPEI

A Taiwanese-Macanese gay couple tied the knot in Taipei yesterday after winning a landmark legal case as they called for Taiwan to amend its laws to allow same-sex marriages with all foreigners.

Taiwan is seen as leading the LGBTQ rights movement in Asia, as it became the first Asian country to legalise same-sex marriages in 2019. However, restrictions do not allow Taiwanese to marry foreigners from countries where same-sex unions are not legally recognized.

Ting Tse-yan (丁則言) and his partner, Guzifer Leong (梁展輝), from Macau, challenged that restriction in court earlier this year and won, allowing them to officially register their marriage.

However, the ruling applies only to their marriage, and other same-sex couples wanting to marry continue to face restrictions and legal challenges.

“This is an initial success,” the 29-year-old Ting said. “Other international couples still can’t marry and we call for full recognition.”

“We hope our registration today will let the government see that marriage equality has yet to be realized,” said Leong, 33.

The couple were able to wed because a court in May ordered a government office to record their marriage, overturning the office’s 2019 rejection of their registration.

“We’ve waited for two years and finally we can get married,” Ting said after the registration, showing his new ID card with his spouse’s name on it.

The couple have cofounded a group to help more than 100 Taiwanese whose partners are from countries where same-sex marriage is not legal, including China, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam.

“Marriage is a basic human right and it’s unimaginable that there is discriminatory treatment because one’s partner comes from a certain country,” the couple’s lawyer, Victoria Hsu (許秀雯), said. “Would any heterosexual citizens accept a situation in which they were allowed to wed an American but not a Japanese?”

Hsu’s advocacy group, the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights, has appealed to the Control Yuan to look into the issue, she said.

Taiwan is home to a thriving LGBTQ community, and a record 200,000 people attended a Pride march in Taipei in 2019 to celebrate the legalisation of same-sex marriage. Nearly 6,000 same-sex couples have wed since then.

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

The issue proved to be divisive, and the law contains restrictions pushed for by conservatives, including limited adoption rights.

新聞來源:TAIPEI TIMES

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《謝志偉專欄》為「台灣 」演講 讓「Taiwan 」露臉

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德國演講行程開跑!

再十天過後,8 月 24 日,我將應一資深德國國會議員之邀至德國中部一城市 Wetzlar 演講。講題訂的很單純:「Taiwans Bedrohung durch China」(中國威脅台灣)。

邀請方除了在當地一份有十二萬份發行量,每月出刊的報紙頭版刊登我演講的時間地點外,在內頁又以三分之二頁的篇幅痛批中國監控自己人民、迫害香港公民的人權、威脅武嚇台灣的獨立自主。

有意思的是,痛批中共政權的橫暴無道後,同一頁,再把我的演講通告再刊一次。

我除了要分析中國對台灣的文攻、武嚇加認知戰、台美日關係、印太戰略聯盟裡台灣角色等等之外,也會告訴他們:

「自由民主」是台灣的立國基礎,「人權意識」是台灣的團結基礎,「國家認同」是台灣的國防基礎。

我會讓他們了解:

我們不是蔣介石獨裁政權的繼承者,而是克服者。

我會讓他們知道台灣民主的困境:

如被兩個「中國」內外夾攻。

也會指出:

我們目前的憲法是為當時的中國所創,而不是為今天的台灣所定。結果,原本是「憲法應為人民存在」的真義,卻扭曲成是「人民只為憲法存在」的謬誤。

我更會指出我們的半導體產業及生技產業如台積電和高端疫苗是我們的驕傲。

糟糕,我開始擔心演講時間會不夠用了。

*****

這是八月場。一個月前,7 月 18 日,我去了位於慕尼黑附近的「政治教育學院」(Akademie der politischen Bildung Tutzing)和兩位德國政治學教授及一位曾駐中國多年的記者進行一場「中共建黨百年」的論壇討論。當天我發言的基礎是以「自由民主的獨立國家台灣」作為「專制獨裁的霸權國家中國」之對照組。會後和雷根斯堡大學幾位師生照相。

原文出自謝志偉粉絲頁,芋傳媒經授權轉載。

當世界稱呼我們為「Taiwan」 台灣人自己呢? | 蘋果新聞網 | 蘋果日報

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潘袁詩羽/政治大學國家發展研究所碩士生

立陶宛政府日前同意與台灣互設代表處,消息一出歐盟及美國無不支持,連法國《費加洛報(Le Figaro)》都表示「對中國來說是一省,對他人來說是一國」。事實上在東京奧運期間,我國被中國打壓的現況就隨著賽事進入國際社會的討論。當國際社會都在討論「Taiwn is a country」之時,台灣人卻深陷對「中華民國」與「台灣」的認同拉扯;部份人認同「台灣」這個名字,也有人認為「中華民國」才是這個國家的根。但如果跟一個外國人說「I’m come from Republicof China.(我來自中華民國)」,他們多數只會認為你來自中國(中華人民共和國)。因為現況中華民國與中華人民共和國並非相同政府統治,因此還需與外國朋友進一步解釋為何有這種現象。

上述案例在筆者眼裡是相當荒謬的事情,明明許多人民都知道我們是台灣,卻因為名稱需要與他人解釋。美國、日本等國家稱呼我們為「台灣」的重要意義,或許是他們比起台灣人本身更願意區分兩岸的差別。除了名稱外,台灣人更多的是對國族認同的不一致。

陳隆志老師在《台灣國家的進化與正常化》一書提到,台灣最終要以「民族自決」公投的方式確立台灣國家建立,但台灣一直止步不前的理由,無非是 民眾對於「台灣」的認同存在觀念差異 。這是因為 台灣內部缺乏共識,因此無論國家名稱或民族認同,甚至是簡單的統獨立場都造成台灣無法正常國家化的現狀 。

但綜觀國際社會,當前全世界都在討論台灣時,卻還是有人不認同自己的國家。且在各種國際組織會議與運動賽事,被中國吃盡豆腐,台灣人民應該要有自覺。