Wedding bells
Taiwan pulled off quite the surprise this week. Gay marriage is now (or going to be) legal in the tiny island nation.
No, it wasn't because of enlightened legislators. It wasn't because a law was passed. It was due a confluence of circumstances, including a supportive female president, an activist who had been fighting for more than ten years, and a shocking suicide that jolted the nation. That recipe proved effective, and here we have it: Asia's first!
How it all played out was, activist Chi Chia-wei (now in my dream guest list for dinner) had filed for a marriage license to his same-sex partner, but that got denied. So, his case landed before the Constitutional Court of Taiwan, which ruled that existing laws which allowed only males and females to marry were invalid. So, those laws were struck down, and the legislators were given marching orders to pass a new law in two years.
So what happens if, after two years, the Taiwanese lawmakers find themselves embroiled in debates and start fisticuffs all over their dignified parliamentary halls and end up failing to pass the gay marriage law? Not a problem. The court also ordered that if after two years, no such law is passed, then gay people could just pop up at the marriage counter and apply for the same license as straight people can.
Happy Taiwanese people. Now, if only Taiwan can manage to stay out of China's grips for the next couple of years. If China invades Taiwan and co-opts the population, there may not be any wedding marches playing in pineapple cake land.
In stark contrast, the world watched aghast as Indonesian police raided a spa and arrested 141 gay men in what authorities characterized as a gay sex party. From reports of Indonesian friends, Jakarta police released naked photos of the men and asked for confirmation of their identities from the public. If this was the case, then the forced outing from the closet of these gay men would have been quite traumatic.
If and when they get released from police custody, what kind of world will these closeted gay men find themselves in? What if family and employers reject them? Hopefully, this will not trigger a suicide wave among these young, impressionable gay men.
Combine this new story with the public caning of the two men in Aceh, Indonesia, who were pounced upon in a private bedroom by hardline conservatives, and then accused of gay sex. If you watch the news reports, the jeering and heckling from the watching crowd was frightening, and serves as a stark reminder that much more work needs to be done in gaining acceptance not even just for the right to marry, but just the right to exist.
Who would want to live in a world that thinks that yes, gay people should not exist, and supports and promotes the punishment of gay men just for who they are?
In the Philippines, we have both a transgender congresswoman (another dream dinner guest) and a bill that seeks to end discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation that's limping its way into Congress. Meanwhile, some cities have passed their own anti-discrimination codes. While there've been no significant advances in securing rights for LGBTs, there's probably also no systematic discrimination being exerted against the gay populace.
In fact, western employers that have located their branches here have also imported their own employee codes that reflect western liberal values. That includes recognizing domestic partnerships by their gay employees. Transgender employment at BPOs seems to be in stellar numbers, and that's not a surprise, considering.
LGBTs seem to be having it easy in this country, although gay marriage is still missing from the horizon. Given the expressed views of some senators, passing a law might be challenging. But with Taiwan having just unwrapped this matrimonial bomb, will the Philippines (and the rest of Asia) wake up one day to wedding bells?
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