Taiwan hosts historic pride festival after legalizing same-sex marriage

This appeared in The Millennial Source

On October 26, Taiwan hosted its 17th annual pride festival, the first since the legalization of same-sex marriage in May. Nearly 200 000 people marched through the streets of Taipei in celebration of this year’s historic win for the LGBT community.

On May 17, Taiwan approved a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, making it the first country in Asia to legally recognize same-sex marriage. The law officially came into effect on May 24.

How Taiwan came to recognize same-sex marriage

Taiwan is home to a large LGBT community and has hosted the biggest pride parade in Asia for 17 years. Despite this, the decision was still a controversial move.

In 2015, LGBT rights activist Chi Chia-wei filed a request to the Constitutional Court, asking to revise the definition of marriage in Taiwan’s civil code. A similar request was filed by Taipei city government in the same year after three same-sex couples filed an administrative lawsuit against the government when their marriage registrations were rejected.

In 2017, Taiwan’s Constitutional Court ruled that the article in Taiwan’s civil code which said that marriage was…