Taiwan's LGTBQ community buoyed by court adoption ruling
japantimes.co.jpTaipei – Taiwanese activists said Wednesday a court decision allowing a married gay man to adopt his husband’s non-biological child offered hope, but they called for the government to grant adoption equality to all same-sex couples.Taiwan is at the vanguard of the burgeoning LGBTQ rights movement in Asia and became the first place in the region to legalize marriage equality in 2019.
But same-sex couples still face restrictions others do not.They can only adopt a partner’s biological child and can only wed foreigners from countries where gay unions are also legal.In the first favorable ruling of its kind in Taiwan, a family court in Kaohsiung city allowed a 34-year-old man to become the legal guardian of his spouse’s daughter, who his husband adopted before they married.The ruling, made public on Tuesday by activist groups after it went into effect, only applies to the couple.But activists hope the decision will encourage other courts and local officials to follow suit and add to pressure on Taiwan’s government to pass new legislation for full equality.“I am happy that my spouse is also legally recognized as the father of our child … but I can’t feel all that happy without amending the law,” said Wang Chen-wei, one of the claimants.“It’s really absurd that same-sex people can adopt a child when they are single but they can’t after they get married,” the 38-year-old added.Wang said he and his partner, Chen Jun-ru, would like to adopt a second child, but would have to go through the entire court process again.Activist Jennifer Lu said the ruling offers “a ray of hope” but she noted that Taiwan’s courts are inconsistent on the matter — similar requests filed by two other same-sex couples were previously rejected.“We hope the.
