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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Marriage equality bill advances
Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） legislators protest at the legislature in Taipei yesterday against the Democratic Progressive Party for sending a draft bill that would legalize same-sex marriage to a second reading without deliberation. Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
FURIOUS: KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun accused the DPP caucus of ‘ignoring the opinion of 7 million people,’ referring to last year’s referendums on same-sex marriage
By Sean Lin / Staff reporter
Lawmakers yesterday voted to advance a draft act that would legalize same-sex marriage to a second reading, which calls for cross-caucus negotiations.
In light of a May 24 deadline attached to Constitutional Interpretation No. 748, which in 2017 declared the lack of legal channels in the Civil Code to allow same-sex marriage unconstitutional and ordered the government to make amendments, the Democratic Progressive Party （DPP） caucus made a motion to send the “the enforcement act of Judicial Yuan interpretation No. 748” to a second reading.
The draft act was unveiled by the Executive Yuan last month.
The Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） and the People First Party （PFP）, which were against the motion, filed a motion to return it to the Procedural Committee for further deliberation.
The two proposals were put to a vote and the DPP’s motion garnered 59 votes for and 24 votes against, while the KMT and PFP’s motion was struck down after failing to secure a majority vote.
However, five DPP lawmakers abstained from voting: Huang Kuo-shu （黃國書）, Chuang Jui-hsiung （莊瑞雄）, Hsu Chih-chieh （許智傑）, Ho Hsin-chun （何欣純） and Chiu Yi-ying （邱議瑩）.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming （柯建銘） told reporters that the draft act needs to be discussed in cross-caucus negotiations presided over by Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan （蘇嘉全）.
Other versions of the same-sex marriage bill would also be reviewed during negotiations alongside the Executive Yuan’s bill, he said.
KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun （黃昭順） later yesterday in a question-and-answer session with Premier Su Tseng-chang （蘇貞昌） accused the DPP caucus of “ignoring the opinion of 7 million people.”
She was referring to the result of Referendum No. 14 held on Nov. 24 last year, in which 6.9 million people voted against the question that asked: “Do you agree that the right to marriage of persons of the same sex should be protected by legislation under the chapter on marriage of the Civil Code?”
Referendum No. 12 — which asked: “Do you agree that the right to persons of the same sex to create a permanent union should be guaranteed by an institution other than marriage as defined by the Civil Code?” — garnered 6.4 million votes in favor and 4 million votes against.
“Are you not furious? We sure are,” Huang Chao-shun said, slamming her hand on the podium.
“Calm down. You were the one who asked me to come up here to answer your questions,” the premier said.
“If you do not want to answer questions, you can go back,” Huang Chao-shun said, to which Su Tseng-chang replied: “Fine, thank you” and returned to his seat.
“I did not want you to come up here. It is fine that you do not come up,” Huang Chao-shun said.
Huang Chao-shun had earlier argued with Su Tseng-chang after the latter said that the KMT used to “dread the Referendum Act （公民投票法） as if it were vermin.”
She was still venting her frustration with the premier after her time to ask questions had ended, calling him “arrogant, intolerant, loveless and narrow-minded,” to which Su Tseng-chang responded by smiling.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
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