Taiwan’s gay marriage ruling raises hopes across Asia

BEIJING—Taiwan’s giant step towards allowing same-sex marriage has reverberated across Asia, but activists warn the fight for equality isn’t over in a region where gay sex remains illegal in some countries.

Challenges to an Asia-wide embrace of same-sex unions were highlighted by this week’s caning of two Indonesian men as punishment for gay sex and a South Korean military court’s jailing of a soldier for having intercourse with another man.

In mainland China, two men lost a court battle to get married last year.

But activists are hopeful that the push for marriage rights will be reinvigorated by Taiwan’s constitutional court decision, which paves the way for the island to become the first place in Asia to allow same-sex couples to tie the knot.

The court ruled Wednesday that laws preventing same-sex unions violated the constitution’s guarantees of freedom of marriage and gave the government two years to implement the decision.

“We’re very happy,” said Vuong Kha Phong, a rights assistant at iSEE advocacy group in Vietnam. “This is a historic victory for the LGBT groups in Asia.”

The first domino?

Gay marriage is currently legal in only around 20 countries around the world, 13 of which are in Europe. New Zealand also allows same-sex couples to legally marry.

Taiwan is seen as one of the most progressive societies in Asia when it comes to gay rights.

“While I think it is still a long way to the equality dominos falling all over Asia, I think a few East Asian countries, such as Japan and Vietnam, may be more ready to consider equality legislation,” Ray Chan, Hong Kong’s first openly gay lawmaker, told Agence France-Presse.

“I can foresee many couples in Hong Kong will try to get married in Taiwan. When they return home, they will press the government and even the private sector for recognizing them because the current laws, policies, and rules are blatantly discriminatory.”

In Vietnam, which is seen as socially progressive on LGBT issues and where a vibrant gay scene flourishes online and in some big cities, hopes for marriage reform have stalled.

But iSEE’s Phong said the Taiwan ruling “will give us momentum to mobilize the community to take action — to do something so that gay marriage can be considered when lawmakers discuss changing the marriage law in 2020.”

Gay activists in China expressed optimism that their country’s cultural connections with Taiwan could help their efforts to change the law on same-sex nuptials.

Homosexuality was officially decriminalized in 1997 but only taken off the list of psychiatric disorders four years later.

“Taiwan and mainland China have the same roots and culture so it suggests that Chinese society could also accept the idea of gay marriage,” said Li Yinhe, a renowned Chinese sexologist who has pressed Beijing policymakers on the issue.

There have been small signs of progress. While a Chinese court last year ruled against two men seeking to marry, the fact the case even made it into the judicial system was seen by many as an achievement.

“I am very happy and very excited that homosexual marriage is legalized in Taiwan. It’s a pity that the mainland has not taken this step,” said Sun Wenlin, one of the men in the case.

“But I’m optimistic about the legalization of same-sex marriage in China.”

Elisabeth Lund Engebretsen, a senior lecturer at the University of Oslo’s Centre for Gender Research, said Taiwan’s court ruling “creates a momentum for putting this on the table as a political issue” in Asia.

Gay sex illegal

South Korea allows homosexual acts between civilians but not military personnel and a high-profile legal challenge to the country’s ban on same-sex marriage in 2015 by movie director Kim Jho Gwang-Soo and his long-time partner Kim Seung-Hwan failed.

“People say that it’s too early for our society to handle but I think if there is an open debate about the troubles of sexual minorities then I hope South Korean society can also walk a similar path,” said Lee Na-Ra from Solidarity for LGBT Human Rights of Korea.

Before they can consider marriage, activists must win other battles in places such as India, Singapore and Indonesia’s Aceh province, where gay sex is still outlawed.

“Legally we are not even pressing for gay marriage now. We are being denied our fundamental right,” said Manvendra Singh Gohil, one of India’s most vocal gay rights activists. “We have to go step by step.”/rga

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Italian gay rights debate prompts rethink of sacred family

ROME— In Italy, family is considered so sacred that marriage is lauded in the Constitution. But what kind of family?

That has become a bitterly divisive question in a nation where the Vatican packs considerable political weight and where gays have grown impatient as other traditionally Catholic European countries have either allowed same-sex couples to marry or legally recognized their civil unions.

On Thursday, Italy’s Senate will plunge into a debate on proposed legislation to grant legal recognition to “civil unions,” including those of homosexual couples, without equating the partnerships to marriage.

The coalition government of Premier Matteo Renzi is pushing for the legislation, which includes the right of inheritance, to receive the pension of his or her deceased partner, or to make medical decisions about a partner in hospital. But one provision of the bill, to permit gays to adopt the biological children of their partner, has generated animosity even within Renzi’s coalition.

Opponents fear the so-called “stepchild adoption” will encourage male couples to turn to surrogate mothers abroad. Surrogacy is banned in Italy, as well as in many other European countries. Headlines warning of a surge in “rented uteruses” have abounded lately in Italian Catholic publications, as well as in more conservative lay newspapers.

Intentionally or not, Pope Francis has waded into the debate. Last week, in an annual address to the Vatican tribunal that grants marriage annulments, the pontiff declared: “There can’t be any confusion between the family intended by God and every other kind of union.”

And the head of the politically influential Italian Bishops Conference defended Catholics’ having their say in the debate. Laity must “inscribe divine law into earthly life,” Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco said.

According to Vatican teaching, homosexual relations are sinful and marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

Pro-Vatican elements among Renzi’s Democrats are among those insisting the adoption provision be jettisoned, and the premier has told lawmakers “to vote according to your conscience.”

While politicians squabble over what rights gay couples should have, Italian courts increasingly have been approving the adoption by gays of their partner’s biological children on a case-by-case basis.

“This law is needed. Period,” Renzi told an Italian radio station recently, as political debate grew more acrimonious.

Besides the faith factor, the proposed bill has prompted a rethink of what constitutes family in a country where people rely on relatives or spouses when the state falls short. Grandparents care for children because public daycare spots are scarce; hospital staff often assume Italians will bring hot meals to their relatives’ bedside.

“Culturally, family is the ballast to Italian identity,” said Lisa Colletta, a professor of gender studies at The American University of Rome.

In her apartment in Rome, Martina Castagnole wakes in the middle of the night to care for 7-month-old Gabriele, and during the day plays with him, exactly like the boy’s biological mother, her partner, Giulia Filibeck, does.

“But in everyday life, I have no rights. I can’t take my son from school, I can’t travel with him abroad. If the baby is in the hospital, I cannot be involved” in his care, Castagnole told The Associated Press.

She said neighbors, or people whom the couple run into in the supermarket, accept the baby, which was conceived with sperm from a donor in England.

“It’s ever more frequent that people we meet, doctors, others, treat us and talk to us like we are both parents,” Castagnole said.

“Society is more advanced than the law,” she added, while lawmakers “have pressures on them, political, cultural, from the church.”

Opponents of the proposed legislation fear gay civil unions will pave the way for gay marriage. They have promised to draw 1 million people to Rome’s ancient Circus Maximus field on Saturday to loudly lodge their objections to “stepchild adoption.”

“We uphold the position of the Catholic church on marriage, a millennia-old institution,” said a rally organizer, Paolo Maria Floris. He stressed that organizers support “individual” rights for gay couples such as inheritance. “But the rights of children come first; they need to have a mother and a father.”

Next weekend’s rally comes in contrast to rallies in nearly 100 cities nationwide last Saturday, when homosexuals and other backers of the legislation sounded alarm clocks at the same hour to signal that the time has come to give rights to same-sex couples.

In a curious twist, some backers of the bill hail from the conservative fold of former Premier Silvio Berlusconi, whose fiancee is an outspoken advocate for gay rights.

The bill’s path will likely be a long one. Opponents have tacked on several thousand amendments in a bid it to slow down the process, and it is not known when lawmakers will vote on the proposal. TVJ

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

Gay marriage bill signed into law in Ireland

DUBLIN, Ireland - Same-sex marriage was signed into law in Ireland on Thursday, five months after a historic referendum saw the traditionally Catholic nation become the world's first country to vote for gay unions.

In a brief statement, the president's office said "The Presidential Commission today signed the 'Marriage Bill 2015' into law", paving the way for the first weddings within a month.

Ireland voted 62.1 percent in favour of allowing marriage between two people "without distinction as to their sex" in May, the first time anywhere that gay marriage has been legalised in a referendum.

Legal challenges to the result had briefly delayed the legislation from coming into effect.

Senator Katherine Zappone, who had long campaigned for her Canadian marriage to her wife to be recognised in Ireland, called it "a defining moment".

"It is a deeply emotional moment for those of us who have campaigned for so long," Zappone said in a statement. "This victory truly belongs to the nation, it is a moment for us all."  —  Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com

Pope Francis secretly met Kentucky clerk over gay marriage licenses

LOS ANGELES/VATICAN CITY -  Pope Francis secretly met a Kentucky county clerk last week who was jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples and gave her words of encouragement, her attorney said.

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis and her husband met with the pope during the Washington leg of his visit to the United States, after the Vatican reached out to her several weeks ago, ABC reported on Wednesday.

"It was really very humbling to even think that he would want to, you know, meet me or know me," Davis told ABC. "I put my hand out, and he grabbed it, and I hugged him, and he hugged me and he said, 'Thank you for your courage.'"

"He told me before he left, he said, 'Stay strong.' That was a great encouragement," Davis said.

Davis said knowing that the pope agreed with what she was doing "kind of validates everything."

ABC said the pope gave Davis a rosary, which she plans to give to her Catholic parents.

Mat Staver, attorney and founder of the Liberty Counsel, told CBS News that the pope met Davis and her husband at the Vatican embassy in Washington last Thursday.

Vatican chief spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said he would neither confirm nor deny the report and that there would be no further statement. This was unusual for the Vatican, which normally issues either denials or confirmations.

The report of the meeting came after Francis largely avoided the contentious issue of same-sex marriage during his historic visit to the United States, where he addressed Congress, met with the homeless and urged the country to welcome immigrants.

The pope, speaking to reporters as he returned home from his 10-day trip to the U.S. and Cuba on Monday, said government officials had a "human right" to refuse to discharge a duty if they felt it violated their conscience.

Staver, whose client was jailed for five days in September for refusing to comply with a judge's order to issue the licenses in line with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, told CBS his team did not want to disclose the meeting until now to avoid interfering with the pope's broader message during his visit.

"Because we didn't want the pope's visit to be overshadowed with Kim Davis," Staver said in an interview on the network.

During the meeting, the pope told Davis to "stay strong", Staver said.

Davis has said her beliefs as an Apostolic Christian prevent her from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Her church belongs to a Protestant movement known as Apostolic Pentecostalism.

To keep a low profile, Davis went to the Vatican embassy in a sports utility vehicle with her hair in a different style than her normal look, Staver told CBS, adding he was not present.

Conservative Christians, including some Republican presidential candidates, have said Davis is standing up for religious freedom.

But the American Civil Liberties Union, which went to court to ensure same-sex couples can obtain marriage licenses in Rowan County, has argued she has a responsibility as an official to issue the licenses, regardless of her views.

The ACLU, in papers filed on Sept. 21 with the judge hearing the case, asked the court to require Davis to stop making alterations to the licenses, such as removing any reference to the Rowan County clerk's office.  — Reuters

Same-sex marriages expected to boost global travel, hospitality industries

NEW YORK - Growing acceptance and legalization of same-sex marriages in the United States and around the globe will fuel the travel and hospitality industries and boost spending by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender consumers, experts say.

Seventeen US states and the District of Columbia, and a similar number of countries recognize gay unions. Last month Scotland legalized gay marriages, joining a list that includes the Netherlands, Brazil, France, New Zealand, Argentina, South Africa and others.

Although the LGBT community is a small segment of the U.S. population, Charlie Rounds, of the Florida-based International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA) Foundation, said the changes in marriage laws will have big implications for travel in the United States and abroad. 



"It is going to be an inordinate percentage of the wedding market in the next five to 10 years," he said in an interview during a visit to New York.

"Even though we are only maybe 4 or 5 percent of the population, the number of us getting married is probably going to be 20 times that because we couldn't and now we can," added Rounds, who is also the managing director of U.S. marketing agency OutThink Partners.

Gay couples who have waited years, and in some cases decades, to legalize their unions will be tying the knot and many have the economic resources to pay for large, expensive weddings in far-flung locations.

"We're getting married at a different place in life," said Rounds, who wed his long-term partner in a big church wedding.

Increased visibility, new destinations

Data released in November by Out Now Business Class, a resource website to reach LGBT consumers, showed that in 2014 LGBT tourism spending is expected to top $200 billion for the first time.

The United States accounts for $56.5 billion of the spending, according to the figures, followed by Brazil with $25.3 billion. LGBT Europeans are expected to spend $66.1 billion on tourism.

LoAnn Halden, media relations director of IGLTA, said LGBT travel has increased in visibility in recent years.

"As acceptance of LGBT rights increases people feel more comfortable being open when they are traveling and more destinations are getting on the bandwagon to market to gay travelers," Halden explained.

Key West in Florida, San Francisco, New York and Provincetown in Massachusetts, which have long welcomed gay tourists, are being joined by new cities, regions and countries.

"The number of people marketing openly has also increased," Halden added in an interview. "Now we are seeing places like Door County, Wisconsin, marketing to the LGBT community. In South America we are seeing more smaller regional destinations."

Gay cruises now travel to Cambodia and Vietnam, as well as some Croatian ports, and Asia, Brazil and India are among the growth markets.

Major hotel brands and airlines are also appealing directly to the LGBT community through microsites and advertising.

Rounds said safety and legal protection are still concerns for gay travelers and he stressed the importance when searching for travel destinations to look at their rights on LGBT issues.

"We are demanding visibility and equal rights," said Halden. "There are a lot of people who haven't been able to get married and they are queuing up." — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com