Taiwan Legalize Same Sex Marriage, First In Asia

Taiwan will go down in history as the first country in Asia to legalize same sex marriage after the majority of lawmakers voted to pass the cabinet-sponsored bill of same gender the right to get married. The bill titled Enforcement Act of Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 748 passed the legislative floor on May 17, 2019 at 3:30pm.


This new law of Taiwan will take effect on May 24th that will allow same gender couples of 18 years old and above to register for marriage. There must be at least two witnesses signing the registration document.

Under the law, both partners will be allowed to adopt the biological children of the other, but a non-biological children who had been adopted by the other before the marriage cannot be adopted by the other partner.

However, lawmakers are against on the cabinet’s bill to allow transnational same sex couples from any country to get married in Taiwan, therefore the law only covers for Taiwanese same gender couples. The marriage of transnational couple is governed by the law of engaging countries.

In that act, a Taiwanese national cannot legally recognize or marry a foreign transnational from a country where same sex marriage is not legal.