Time for a hand in marriage
Author calls for more people to join fight for vows made by same-sex couple's not to be rendered meaningless by bureaucracy
If Taiwan's experience in fighting for same-sex rights is anything to go by, Hong Kong still has a long way to go towards legalisation of same-sex marriages, according to Chen Xue, the Taiwanese writer whose work offers a radical discourse on lesbianism.
Chen is married to her female partner even though same-sex marriage is not legally recognised in Taiwan. "Our only regret is that the marriage is not recognised by law," the 44-year-old told the .
She recalled her outrage when she was required to call up her younger brother for help when a hospital refused to let her wife countersign a consent form ahead of surgery.
"I was thinking, what if I needed the operation in an emergency and my brothers and sisters were in another city? No matter how much I consider her a family member, in law she's just an acquaintance."
Chen and the woman she calls her wife wed in 2009 after deciding they wanted to pledge an oath of love to one another. Many of her Facebook followers post tales of how their own marriage oaths are rendered meaningless in the face of bureaucracy. Chen added that the "widowed' partner of a friend had been left fighting to keep her home after the dead woman's relatives staked a claim.
"It's like a home you build with your love is deprived by something very cold," Chen said. "Sometimes, love alone is not enough. That's why I decided to join the gay rights movement."
The movement in Taiwan has been facing the same increasingly outspoken opposition as in Hong Kong, said Chen. In November last year, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Taipei to protest against a gay marriage bill currently being considered by Taiwan's legislature. One participant was dressed in a Nazi uniform.
