Third gay couple registers marriage – 台北時報

FOURTH TO WIN SUIT: The interior ministry should revoke a decree that has prevented 400 cross-national couples from registering their marriages, an LGBTQ rights group said

• Staff writer, with CNA

A cross-national same-sex couple on Friday registered their marriage at a household registration office in Taipei, weeks after they won a lawsuit against an agency that rejected their previous application, an LGBTQ rights group said.

The Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights said in a news release that Lu Yin-jen (盧盈任) and his Japanese partner, Eizaburo Ariyoshi, had their marriage officially registered earlier that day.

The couple was accompanied to the registration office by other cross-national same-sex couples and alliance members.

Lu’s father watched the procedure via livestream, the group said.

Lu and Ariyoshi are the third cross-national same-sex couple in which one partner is from a country or region that does not allow same-sex marriage to register their union in Taiwan after winning a lawsuit against the government with the help of pro bono legal services by the alliance.

Despite the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2019, household registration offices across the country have continued to reject such cross-national unions, citing a Ministry of the Interior (MOI) directive.

The directive references Article 46 of the Act Governing the Choice of Law in Civil Matters Involving Foreign Elements (涉外民事法律適用法), which stipulates that marriage rights depend on the laws of each party’s home country.

In December last year, Lu and Ariyoshi sued the ministry after two unsuccessful registration attempts.

On July 21, the Taipei High Administrative Court ruled that the couple should not have been prevented from registering their marriage.

The alliance said the decision was based on Article 8 of the same act, which states that if applying the law of a foreign state “leads to a violation of the public order or boni mores of the Republic of China,” that foreign law should not be applied.

Alliance secretary-general Chien Chih-chieh (簡至潔) called on the ministry to stop preventing couples such as Lu and Ariyoshi from registering their marriage in Taiwan by revoking its directive.

While courts have since March last year ruled in favor of four couples who had faced similar roadblocks, involving partners from Malaysia, Macau, Singapore and Japan, about 400 couples have been prevented from registering their unions due to the directive, the alliance said, adding that the 400 couples include several that have had their marriage registered in other countries.