LET’S hear it for Taiwan. Late last month its highest court ruled that the law allowing marriage only between a man and a woman was invalid. Sexual orientation, it said, is “an immutable characteristic that is resistant to change”—rebutting a widespread view across Asia that homosexuality is a curable disease. Barring same-sex couples from marrying violated the right to be treated equally, the court concluded. It gave parliament two years to change the law. If it fails to do so, gay couples will be able to go ahead and register as married anyway.
For Chi Chia-wei, the case’s most ardent backer, it has been a long fight. He was a teenager when he came out to his family in 1975. When he made a public declaration of his homosexuality in 1986, Taiwan was still under martial law; he was arrested and jailed. Nineteen years after the Netherlands became the first country to legalise same-sex marriage, Taiwan has become the first in Asia. Which will be second?
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