Taiwan Court Weighs Becoming First in Asia to Allow Gay Marriage

  • Constitutional panel could announce landmark ruling Wednesday
  • Legislative efforts to guarantee right face weak support

Chi Chia-wei.

Photographer: Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images
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Taiwan’s constitutional court could decide as soon as Wednesday whether to become the first place in Asia to allow gay marriage, even as legislative efforts to change the law struggle to overcome weak public support.

The Justices of the Constitutional Court were expected to rule after 4 p.m. on whether a civil law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman violates constitutional guarantees of equal protection. The case was brought by gay rights activist Chi Chia-wei after the Taipei city government rejected his and his long-time partner’s application to marry in 2013.