A total of 4,021 same-sex couples have registered marriages in Taiwan since the country became the first in Asia to legalize the practice in May 2019.
According to statistics released May 23 by the Ministry of the Interior, these comprise 2,773 female couples and 1,248 male couples.
Further breakdown of the data shows that New Taipei City topped all municipalities with 815 registered marriages, followed by Taipei City, 633, and the southern city of Kaohsiung, 534.
The MOI said over 95 percent of marriages were between two Taiwan nationals, while 189 unions involved foreign citizens from countries where same-sex marriage is also legal, including Australia, Canada, France, the U.K. and the U.S.
One notable trend is that 83 percent of transnational same-sex marriages were between men, while women-only couples comprised 72 percent of registrations where both individuals were Taiwan nationals, the ministry said, adding further research is required to determine the reason for this difference.
Citing a survey conducted by the Cabinet-level Gender Equality Committee, the MOI said public acceptance of same-sex marriage has increased from 37.4 percent in 2018 to 52.5 percent this year, with 51.8 percent of people disagreeing with the argument that same-sex marriage will undermine family or marital norms, up from 38.7 percent during the same period.
The results show Taiwan society has made great strides toward embracing marriage equality, the MOI said. It comes a year after Taiwan’s Legislature passed the Act for Implementation of J.Y. Interpretation No. 748, which legalized same-sex marriage in response to a ruling by the country’s Constitutional Court in May 2017. (SFC-E)