Abused as ‘dirty’, same-sex newlyweds in Taiwan fear backlash

 | 
06/25/2019

Although Jovi Wu and Mindy Chiu made history last month as one of the first lesbian couples in Asia to marry legally, they are fearful that conservatives may reverse Taiwan’s landmark law. The businesswomen and their six-year-old daughter, Allison, were verbally abused when they demonstrated in support of same-sex marriage last year, ahead of a referendum that came after the top court set a two-year deadline for legalization. One woman took a leaflet from Allison, looked at it, threw it on the ground and then called their family “sickening and dirty”, 36-year-old Chiu said from her home in a suburb of Zhongli district, an hour’s drive from Taiwan’s capital, Taipei. “(I asked her) do you have to say this in front of a child – that we are sickening, we are dirty? What we are trying to say is that we’re just the same, like you,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Hundreds of same-sex couples married on May 24 after President Tsai Ing-wen signed into law a bill endorsing same-sex marriage – a controversial move which has divided the self-ruled island, seen as a beacon of liberalism in Asia.

Regions: ,

Share this:

Latest Global News

Added on: 04/25/2024
04/24/2024
A “radical feminist” group called the Women’s Liberation Front, that has helped shape anti-trans laws nationwide, has also played a role in a proposed …
Added on: 04/25/2024
04/24/2024
A UK minister has claimed that Rwanda is a “progressive” country where LGBTQ+ migrants will be safe, despite warnings from queer charities. Illegal migration minister Michael …
Added on: 04/25/2024
04/24/2024
Recent Afrobarometer survey data (Round 8, 2019-2021) paints a stark picture with 86% of Kenyans and 93% of Ghanaians expressing intolerance towards the LGBT community. This …

Explore LGBTQ+ Issues

Other News from ,

Added on: 04/25/2024
There’s a new rainbow rising over Nepal. This is Sandip Roy in Kathmandu. The Himalayan country has always been known for tourism – Mountains forests old …
Added on: 04/24/2024
Over the weekend in Japan, 15,000 people took part in the 2024 Tokyo Rainbow Pride parade, one of the biggest LGBTQIA+ events in Southeast …
Added on: 04/23/2024
For Taiwan, which often finds its international participation constrained – barred from a World Health Organization membership and competing under the “Chinese Taipei” flag …