A Step Forward Towards Equality! Same-Sex Couples Granted Adoption Rights In Taiwan

Taiwan's legislature passed a law Tuesday granting same-sex couples the opportunity to jointly adopt a child to whom neither is related, removing one of the last remaining barriers to complete marriage equality. Taiwan became the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage in 2019. However, it did not allow same-sex couples complete adoption rights.

In the past, only heterosexual couples and single people could adopt children to whom they were not biologically related, which meant that if same-sex couples wanted to adopt a child, only one of them could register as the child's legal parent, even if they both shared the responsibility of raising them.

The groundbreaking decision came after a family court in southern Kaohsiung City last year ruled in favor of a married gay man seeking to share parental responsibility for his husband's adoptive child, a first verdict of its kind.

"After four years of hard work, today the parliament finally passed the (bill for) adoption without blood relationship by same-sex couples," said the advocacy group Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights in a statement.

Protecting Rights & Interests Of LGBTQ+ Community

Taiwan has a thriving LGBTQ community; in 2019, a record 200,000 people marched in Taipei to celebrate the legalization of same-sex marriage.

Fan Yun, a politician from the in-power Democratic Progressive Party, who was one of the people behind the legal adoption reform, stated, "I am very excited that we granted joint adoption rights to same-sex couples today."

"Legally, we have finally returned same-sex couples to their children. Parental love is the same, and only through joint adoption can we protect the rights and interests of each other by law," she added, according to a report in CNN.

The Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights, a proponent of LGBT rights on the island, also hailed the choice as a significant step towards obtaining complete marriage equality.

Even though same-sex marriage was legalized four years ago, Taiwan is growing awareness of what it still takes to achieve true marital equality.

Some of the remaining barriers for LGBT couples, according to the alliance, include equality for Taiwanese-Chinese marriages and access to assisted reproductive technology.

Also Read : Women In Nuclear Families More Prone To Diabetes Than Men, Reveals Study