Taiwan grants adoption rights to same-sex couples

Taipei () — Taiwan’s legislature on Tuesday approved a bill granting same-sex couples the right to jointly adopt a child to whom neither is related, clearing one of the last obstacles to achieving full marriage equality. .

Although Taiwan became the first jurisdiction in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage in 2019, the island’s democracy fell short of granting full equal adoption rights to same-sex couples. Previously, only heterosexual couples and single people could adopt children to whom they were not biologically related.

That created a situation where if same-sex couples wanted to adopt a child, only one of them could register as the child’s legal parent, even if both shared the burden of raising the child.

“I am very pleased that today we have granted the right of joint adoption to same-sex couples,” said Fan Yun, a lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party who was one of the promoters of the legal change. “Legally, we have finally given same-sex couples back to their children.”

“The love of parents is the same, and only through joint adoption can we legally protect the rights and interests of each other,” he added.

The Taiwan Alliance to Promote the Rights of Civil Couples, an advocate for LGBTQ rights on the island, also issued a statement, calling the decision a major step towards achieving full marriage equality.

“Today’s success shows that the consensus in Taiwan is to protect the human rights of LGBTQ people and promote gender equality,” the alliance said.

Before Tuesday’s legal change, some same-sex couples had spent years challenging discrimination in Taiwanese courts.

In a historic ruling from last January, a couple of men from the city of Kaohsiung managed to successfully challenge the ban, when the court ruled that allowing joint adoption was in the best interests of their child. But the court also dismissed other similar cases, and the law that limited their civil liberties remained in force until it was modified on Tuesday.

The legal change came amid growing awareness in Taiwan about what is still needed to achieve full marriage equality, even if same-sex marriage had been legalized four years ago.

In January, the Taiwanese government issued a new directive allowing a Taiwanese to marry a same-sex foreign spouse, even if their partner comes from a jurisdiction that does not recognize same-sex marriage. That directive, however, does not include same-sex couples from mainland China.

The Alliance noted that some of the remaining obstacles for LGBTQ couples were equality for cross-strait marriages and access to assisted reproductive technologies.