Recently, many nations have had and experienced a heated and significant issue around the legalization and view towards Same Sex Marriage (SSM). This debate on the idea and fact that the subsequent bans and legalization of same-sex aspects amid the rise of the LGBTQ groups within the communities have had an impact on the people’s ways of life and human rights measures. In Taiwan, marriage is described as the union and companionship between people of different sexes, specifically between a woman and a man. In essence, this definition is enshrined in the civil marriage law. It tends to explicitly embed a tentative limitation in the processes geared at legalizing the issues and aspects related to same-sex marriage. The legalization of SSM in most countries is limited by the view and perspective by which people interpret and understand the definition of marriage (Huang & Liang, 2022). This aspect has propelled many politicians worldwide, specifically in Taiwan, to assume a d, different move towards changing the understanding and interpretation of the concept of various constitutional acts. Under the current progress and understanding amid the exposure to varying levels of SSM interpretations, there has been a significant increase in the number of human activists towards rectifying LGBTQ perceptions. The views and treatments towards the LGBTQ communities have sparked varying inequalities towards the nations, communities and families associated with heterosexual marriages and LGBTQ groups and activities. The LBTQ human activists use constitutional rights as the basis of their argument, citing a provision for respecting human needs and rights (Han & O’Mahoney, 2019). Besides the many challenges, about thirty nations have legally approved the recognition of SSM as a factor of community value and national right amid the struggle for the attainment of marriage equality on a global level. In Taiwanfromta, the global perspective indicates and understands that marriage is not solely and essentially a private and personal matter. Additionally, sociologists argue that marriage is a special societal instrument as it tends to touch most public sectors such as education, economic developments, health sector, politics and continuity of life. Next to this, marriage has a prudent impact in defining and shaping the fundamentals and dignity of human rights (Fingerman et al., 2020). This concept revolves around and across economic, political, and social roles in the public and private domains. This perspective means and necessitates the need to take and treat the issues of SSM in Taiwan as an aspect of concern relative to the need to create a valuable and counterproductive community. Ekberg (2020) indicated that community attitudes and values are essential in shaping the concepts and aspects of life and placing human activities at a significant point that is viable in interpreting and relating the various progress in the different sectors of life. Nonetheless, the issues related to the aspects of the SSM are not a tool of discussion in most communities in that these relationships may be seen and viewed as reflecting a need for mental examination. In essence, most governments perceive issues of SSM as an aspect related to and connected with criminal behaviours. As such, LGBTQ groups have received significant rejection within the communities. However, Taiwan undertook a significant analysis of issues related to SSM amid the need to care for and cater for the interests and values of the varying community groups, such as the LGBTQ (Huang & Liang, 2022). As a result, the Taiwan activists needed to conduct a focused interview on various groups and individuals while determining the factors leading to discrimination within the various sectors of the communities. As such, in 2019, Taiwan was announced as the first Asian nation to recognize and subsequently legalize SSM (Sun et al., 2023). The approach towards the legalization of same-sex marriage underscored the analysis and interpretations of various legal frameworks related to the Taiwan acts of law amid the need to promote LGBTQ rights and interests. The cultural, political, religion and age based factors influence the varying attitudes towards the legalization of Same Sex Marriage in Taiwan.
Literature Review
The Human Rights Agenda in Taiwan
Generally, Taiwan is recognized and accepted as the Republic of China (ROC), which was essentially established and underscored by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) within mainland China (Magdalena & Amenes, 2021). Nonetheless, the lost battle and disagreements with the Japanese government marked a significant value and process by which Taiwan became an overseas of Japan. As such, relative to the sequences of developments in Taiwan’s national values, Chen was elected as the first female Taiwanese to end authoritarian rules and leadership. As such, Chen’s government led to the establishment of an advisory team that helped create and implement human rights and privileges (Jeffreys & Wang, 2017). As such, in 2007, Taiwan’s labour law enhanced the creation and establishment of terms that put an end to the discrimination of people based on gender identity and sexual orientation across various phenomena of human engagements. This aspect helped the government work across various ministries in developing the measures of understanding and learning the values of sexual orientations. As a result, in 2010, Taiwan’s Ministry of Education (MOE) developed and implemented LGBTQ content as part of learning and assessment in schools. Specifically, various textbooks and tutors for teaching the concepts of LGBTQA rights and values were availed by the MOE in collaboration with various teams concerned with antidiscrimination frameworks and policies (Huang & Liang, 2022). With these developments and progress, Taiwan has formulated and implemented more than six international human agendas within its domestic values and laws. This aspect invited the public, through politicians, to push the amendments of the Civil Code of Marriage geared at legalizing the aspects of SSM. In particular, the legalization of SSM marriage in Taiwan has been backed up and supported by various teams related to the antidiscrimination legal frameworks.
Various teams and groups forming the different levels of LGBTQ activists, such as Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), lawyers, and lawmakers, indicate the need to remain visible and loud in their support and quest for marriage equality and human rights norms ((Huang & Liang, 2022). However, the Judiciary failed to amend the Constitution Interpretation on Taiwan law No. 748 Act by allowing the SSM rights to take part in altering the human rights acts. This aspect enabled and promoted the Taiwan human rights agencies to consider engaging the United Nations (UN) experts to support the processes and activities geared at activating the reports for implementing the human rights policies amid the need to recognize same-sex families and marriages that tend to align with the latter’s convections of limiting all forms of discriminations (Chen, 2019). Due to various constitutional evaluations and reforms, the Supreme Court of Taiwan proceeded to make constitutional developments and interpretations to ensure equality in marriages. This interpretation enabled the judicial service to interpret the rights to marriage amid the enshrined SSM aspects. This aspect facilitated the legalization of the SSM in Taiwan, which essentially attracted varying global attention based on what these interpretations meant to other Asian countries.
The Aspect of Same-Sex Marriage in Asia and Taiwan
The Asian community has its own religious and cultural values and norms compared to the Western unions. Some Western communities are prone to rejecting the human norms that tend to promote Asian values. Nonetheless, the embedded social and cultural values do not entail the aspects of embracing same-sex marriage; human rights activists tend to forge and create situations by which there is a bilateral view towards the progressive frameworks of the SSM (Magdalena & Amenes, 2021). This means that the Asian community does not underscore measures of embracing the SSM constitutional reforms. Nonetheless, due to the engaged constitutional acts and interpretations, the tentative move towards respecting human rights tends to give a different understanding of the SSM debates (Han & O’Mahoney, 2019). This aspect and technique aim to enhance comprehensive measures to ensure the respect of human rights for all individuals. This data indicates that various groups of individuals have developed to efficiently implement the measures for recognizing same-sex marriages. Human rights activists have created facilitative measures and efforts to ensure that the necessary legislative and laws lawsuit processes are implemented while enhancing the requirements for defining and changing marital status (Yang, 2021) as such, relative to the needs and approaches of the politicians to take legal action to enhance the norms, susceptible frameworks and grounds of legalizing SSM. As a result, this aspect has sparked different and varying views towards the public’s understanding and attitudes amid the legalization of the SSM.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (Taiwan), (2013) opened that despite the varying socio-cultural and religious values across the different Asian nations, all the states tend to share the same identities and deep roots. Nonetheless, Japan, China, Korea and Taiwan share the same Confucian and religious cultural roots (Magpantay, 2021). Due to the need to join and embrace the concepts and demands of global participation in various activities for economic development and growth, Asian countries are willing to join the international free market, thus the need to adopt the universal understanding towards human rights. This means that the global trends and perceptions influence the domestic norms experienced in the different Asian nations (Fingerman et al., 2020). As such, more focused groups of people are taking proactive measures and techniques to legalize the SSM.
Methodology
This research assignment focused on the analysis of deep literature data embedded in this existing field. In essence, the research focused on analyzing and interpreting the available theories on attitudes and studies towards individuals, scholars, and community members regarding the views and attitudes towards the aspects of the SSM within Asia, Taiwan, and other Western-based countries. Next to this, the literature review also focused on understanding the role of professionals such as lawyers and lawmakers in influencing Taiwanese citizens and societies towards a different view on SSM, given that most Western-based communities and societies are against the aspect of SSM. Additionally, the work targeted understanding the previous data and information on the Asian and global insights into the factors shaping public opinion and patterns towards the aspects of SSM. These insights were rich in providing valuable and useful data on the varying needs and interests of the community members towards the concepts of same-sex marriage amid the prevalence of LGBTQ activists. As a result, the scholars have pinned various activities that tend to influence people’s attitudes towards the SSM, such as education, religion, cultural norms and values amid the exposure to LGBTQ groups and human activists. Various theoretical frameworks and vies, such as contact and social identity theory, have been factored in conceptualizing the attitudes and varying dynamics changes in public views towards the aspects related to SSM.
Nonetheless, the literature review indicates a need for a more focused review and understanding of the Asian contexts amid the influences of the political and cultural landscapes that tend to differ from the intrinsically instilled Western countries` values and expectations. By building on the existing and available literature, this study aimed to evaluate the perceptions of SSM in Taiwan. As a result, the research work focused on employing both focused interviews and survey methods to understand the public’s attitudes towards the aspects of same-sex marriage amid the prevalence of the LGBTQ community. With this, the mixed approach method was considered efficient for this study in helping to configure and characterize Taiwan’s citizens towards the SSM aspects. This meant the survey and interview method was deemed efficient, and the necessary data provided reliable data and information to understand the public’s opinions and views amid the issues of LGBTQ legalization in Taiwan. Specifically, the survey tools were designed to quantify the impacts of politicians, religion, and cultural values on SSM. The in-depth interviews were conducted to help measure the public’s attitudes and feelings towards the SSM. Next to this, the participants in this research were recruited through a combination of social media, online platforms and societal organizations for diversity representation. Nonetheless, ethical values were included in the necessary research to ensure data confidentiality and eliminate bias in the participants’ responses.
The Data Analysis
The qualitative evaluation of the survey and interview data provided a deeper understanding of the factors influencing Taiwan’s citizens towards SSM and the personal, social, and cultural factors that shape the various insights. Both older people and the young participants agreed that most countries in Asia feel that same-sex marriage is taboo and is viewed as a violation of the intrinsic values and beliefs of the broad Western nations. In essence, the Taiwanese community considers marriage a form of human dignity in that it promotes happiness and peaceful co-existence among community members. Nonetheless, 57% of older people indicated that same-sex marriage is tentatively perceived as a violation of the engaged human nature and religious nature, thus tending to pose a challenge to Taiwan as a nation. Nonetheless, about 2 for every three interviewed youths felt that the legalization of SSM is more concerned with individual rights and happiness and the promotion of a safer society for all.
Nonetheless, notable disparities and differences were noted relative to the demographic factors such as religion, age and political ideology. The supporters of the progressive affiliations with the conservative party seemed to support the issues of the legalization of LGBTQ activities highly. Similarly, religious identities emerged as the significant factors influencing the participants’ attitudes towards the SSM. This variability was based on the individuals’ identification as strong followers of a defined religion.
Discussion
This means that the public tends to perceive the aspect of same-sex marriage as an aspect of concern that needs more scrutiny and analysis. As such, relative to social and cultural factors of the Chinese community, SSM in Taiwan embeds a significant issue that raises varying attitudes and influences on the persons engaging in SSM. As such, this view means that there is a mixed feeling towards the treatment of the individuals engaging in the aspects of same-sex marriage activities. Nonetheless, a section of the young aligns with the Confucianist theory, which places the need to allow every individual to express personal views and influences on varying societal factors. This aspect indicates that Confucianism aims to put much concern and focus on family harmony, which helped the traditional relationships that eventually led to marriage. This aspect plays a crucial role in influencing Taiwan’s attitude and feelings towards same-sex marriage.
Nonetheless, the changing Taiwanese population influenced the communal approach and view towards the SSM discussions. There was a lot more embracement of the aspects of the SSM in the urban areas than in the rural-based communities. The changing demographics and increased urbanization activities mean that the community structures vary amid the varying exposure to foreign cultural values. As such, there is an increased shift in the cultural values, attitudes and frameworks geared at enhancing a communal understanding of the changing traditional amenities. However, the various views and perceptions towards the activism frameworks and LGBTQ attitudes seemed to change the public’s understanding of the issues to do with the varying sexual orientations. Next, the increased need for visibility means greater acceptance and awareness of the different gender identities and varying LGBTQ groups. All the same, these results and analysis align with the () assertion that given that the individual under the same-sex marriage framework is allowed to adopt children, then there seems to be nothing wrong with the legalization of SSM.
Nonetheless, the limitations seemed to lie in cases where one of the partner’s states of origin does not legalize same-sex marriage. Based on the findings, the ability of the SSM to support the harmonious living of Taiwan’s everyday affairs seemed to motivate the residents to embrace same-sex marriages significantly. This interprets the various institutions concerned with children’s affairs for the legalization of same-sex marriage in that it does not challenge the ability to care for homeless children. As such, the varying norms and views towards marriage interpret the family as essential for influencing public debates and discourse. As such, given that the SSM tends to lead to increased chances of sober mental capacities, Taiwan’s citizens’ towards the legalization of same-sex marriage is suspended on whether it limits the average life progress. The respondents cited a decreased rate in the number of people with mental challenges and issues of drug abuse since the legalization of the SSM aspects within Taiwanese societies. This information relates to increased satisfaction and family breakups amid the ability of same-sex partners to show love to one another. This data influenced the positive attitudes toward the embracement of same-sex marriage partners within Taiwanese societies.
Conclusion
The analysis of both the analyzed literature and respondents’ feedback indicates that there is a range of attitudes and feelings towards the public’s view on the SSM in Taiwan. In essence, this data shows that there is an increased public understanding of the issues of LGBTQ people. Nonetheless, the analysis indicates variability in the types and feelings of attitudes the legalization of LGBTQ activities has had on Taiwanese individuals. Nonetheless, while teenagers tend to agree with the legalization of LGBTQ, older people seem to go contrary to the steps taken by the government. This data indicates that the level of exposure and openness influence the mixed attitudes amongst the young and the elderly. In essence, given the ability of the young to read and understand the Constitution by themselves, there is an increased visibility in the interpretation of the various constitutional acts related to providing every individual with the right to a convenient life. Next to this, a range of the interviews indicated that SSM does not hinder the purpose of marriage on happiness and affordable life. This aspect played a significant role in increasing the public’s view towards the issues with the legalization of the SSM. Nonetheless, given that the Judiciary failed to amend the Constitution Interpretation on Taiwan law No. 748 Act, the public’s view and attitudes toward the legalization of the SSM are more inclined towards the impacts this factor has on the LGBTQ community. All the same, there was the case of increased public acceptance and embracing of the SSM among teenagers and urban residents.
References
Chen, C. (2019). Migrating Marriage Equality without Feminism: Obergefell v. Hodges and the Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage in Taiwan. Social Science Research Network. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3364767
Ekberg, G. (2019). The Swedish Law that Prohibits the Purchase of Sexual Services. Violence Against Women, 10(10), 1187–1218. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801204268647
Fingerman, K. L., Huo, M., & Birditt, K. S. (2020). A decade of research on intergenerational ties: technological, economic, political, and demographic changes. Journal of Marriage and Family, 82(1), 383–403. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12604
Han, E., & O’Mahoney, J. (2019, May 27). What will Taiwan’s same-sex marriage mean in the rest of Asia? Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/05/25/what-will-taiwans-same-sex-marriages-will-mean-rest-asia/
Huang, Y., & Liang, Z. (2022). Effects of Same-Sex Marriage Legalization for Sexual Minority Men in Taiwan: Findings from a prospective study. International Journal of Public Health, 67. https://doi.org/10.3389/ijph.2022.1604489
Magdalena, N., & Amenes, A. A. (2021). The implications of legalizing Same-Sex Marriage in Taiwan. Papua Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, 1(2), 137–148. https://doi.org/10.31957/pjdir.v1i2.1817
Magpantay, G. D. (2021). The ambivalence of queer Asian Pacific Americans toward Same-Sex Marriage. Amerasia Journal, 32(1), 109–118. https://doi.org/10.17953/amer.32.1.r25929776mh88657
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (Taiwan). (2013, March 31). How Confucianism affected Taiwan’s democratization. Taiwan Today. https://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?unit=10&post=19964#:~:text=For%20the%20purposes%20of%20the,for%20democratization%2C%20women’s%20rights%2C%20freedom
Sun, X., Wang, Y., & McLeod, D. M. (2023). National independence versus Traditional culture: Framing the Same-Sex Marriage Movement and Countermovement in Taiwan. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 194016122311712. https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612231171265
Yang, J. (2021). The Compressed Modernity of Legalizing Same-sex Marriage in Taiwan: Digital Activism, Human Rights Discourse, and Intertwined Sexual, Political and National Identities. Reserved. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5324&context=gc_etds
write