MAINLY Buddhist Taiwan, with a population of around 24 million, would have become the first country in Asia to legalise gay marriage following a 2017 ruling by the island’s Constitutional Court that to deny gay and lesbian couples the right to marry violated the constitution. But aggressive interference in Taiwan’s affairs by US-based Christian groups is thought to have led to a defeat for same-sex marriage supporters who voted in a referendum last year. In the final tally about seven million Taiwanese voted to restrict the legal definition of marriage to between a man and a woman, with three million supporting the inclusive notion of marriage as between two people. Christians in Taiwan, who make up only four to five percent of the population, started taking a lead from vociferously anti-gay marriage groups based in America and elsewhere as far back as 2014.