Seven years ago today, Taiwan became the first Asian country to legalise same-sex marriages, marking a historic win in the fight for gender equality and rights of the LGBTQ people in the region.
The Legislative Yuan, Taiwan’s unicameral parliament, mounted the landmark reform by passing on May 17, 2019, the draft law called “The Enforcement Act of the Judicial Yuan Interpretation No.748,” granting same-sex couples the same right to legally marry as opposite-sex couples.
The legislation also levelled “many of the same rights and obligations applied to opposite-sex couples under the existing regulations in the Civil Code” with same-sex couples, according to an earlier report by Amnesty International.
The law formally took effect May 24, 2019, arousing divided opinions amongst members of the public, and provoking intense discussions within families, generations and religious groups.
Acceptance grew
Nearly a decade later, the nation of more than 23 million people is seeing a major shift in public opinion towards marriage equality, with a recent survey marking an increase in support for same-sex marriage and fundamental obligations that come with it.
According to the Taiwan Equality Campaign (TEC)-commissioned poll, public support for same-sex marriages in the country now stands at 54.3%, higher by 12 percentage points compared to the 2019 results.
The survey, which the non-profit civic group released on Friday, was conducted in April by Trend Polls via phone interviews with 1,077 adults nationwide. It has a margin of error of 2.98% and 95 per cent confidence level.
As the acceptance for marriage equality grew in general over the past seven years, the support for transnational same-sex marriages and joint child adoption by same-sex couples also increased to 63% and 67.2% respectively, according to the survey.
Meanwhile, the approval of assisted reproduction for female same-sex couples remained stable at 59.7%, although the majority of the respondents agreed that the Legislative Yuan needs to further discuss the matter, as the practice remains limited to infertile heterosexual couples.
Of all the subject matters covered in the poll, the strongest increase in support was for gender equality education, up 21 percentage points from 2019 to 75%, according to TEC.
Other regional pioneers
Taiwan is among the only 38 countries in the world where same-sex marriages are legal and is one of the regional pioneers.
The Netherlands became the first-ever country in the world to achieve such a milestone in 2001, while Canada in 2005 became the first in the Americas.
South Africa, which passed the Civil Union Act, legalising same-sex unions in 2006, is the first African nation to mount marriage equality.
Recent additions to the list include Thailand, which enacted in 2025 the Marriage Equality Law, marking a first in Southeast Asia.
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Ciara Mina 
Adam Peaker 
Hazel Camba