Same-sex couple Yi Wang and Yumi Meng at mass wedding at Taiwan army headquarters in Taoyuan
Taoyuan, Taiwan:
Waving rainbow flags and shedding tears of joy, two Taiwanese same-sex couples got married on Friday in a mass wedding hosted by the military at another landmark of Asia’s LGBT community .
Taiwan is at the forefront of Asia’s burgeoning gay rights movement, and became the first place in the region to allow same-sex marriage in May 2019 after a deadly political struggle.
Nearly 200 couples marched through a military base in northern Taoyuan County before exchanging vows in an outdoor ceremony.
Among them, two Taiwanese female soldiers and their same-sex civilian partners, a first for the island’s armed forces, which regularly organize mass marriages for personnel.
“This is another big step forward for the military,” Lieutenant Chen Ying-hsuan, dressed in his military uniform, told reporters.
“I hope more same-sex couples can stand out. The military is open and we are all equal in the face of love,” added the 27-year-old.
“Our love is no different from any heterosexual couple,” beamed his wife Li Li-chen, 26, in a traditional white dress.
“We are here today in the hope that more same sex couples will join the next (mass wedding).”
Major Wang Yi, 36, and his partner Yumi Meng waved rainbow flags as they posed for family photos in front of an armored vehicle.
“It’s great to see the progress in the military,” said Meng, 37, adding that she was “proud” that his wife was a serving soldier.
– Pride marches and prayer breakfasts –
Photos of the two couples went viral after being posted on the military’s Facebook page earlier this week, with congratulatory messages pouring in from all over Taiwan and beyond.
Three same-sex couples were planning to join a Navy and Air Force mass wedding last year, but they pulled out following huge media interest.
Taiwan was once covered in the martial authoritarianism of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, but in recent decades it has grown into one of Asia’s most vibrant liberal democracies.
Over the past decade, he has become increasingly progressive on gay rights, with Taipei hosting by far Asia’s largest annual pride parade.
Taiwan made history last year with the region’s first legal same-sex marriages after parliament passed a same-sex marriage law, with couples marrying in jubilant scenes broadcast around the world.
More than 4,000 couples have registered their marriages since the law came into force.
The island will hold its annual gay pride march on Saturday, with large crowds expected in one of the few places that has successfully defeated the coronavirus pandemic.
But the issue has caused deep divisions on the island, especially among conservative religious groups and the older generations.
President Tsai Ing-wen faced backlash from some members of the Christian community after encouraging people to join the pride march this year on her social media accounts.
As a result of his remarks, an annual prayer breakfast hosted by church groups, to which the Taiwanese president is normally invited, was canceled for the first time in 20 years.
Tsai supports gay rights and took a political risk back then pushing for same-sex equality.
But she was re-elected with a landslide in January.
Taiwanese LGBT groups held a smaller pride march in June – the traditional pride month – in solidarity with gay communities around the world who were unable to celebrate because of the pandemic.
Although the same-sex marriage law was seen as a major achievement for Taiwan’s LGBT community, it still contains restrictions that heterosexual couples do not face, including for adoption and foreign marriages.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
