In 2018, Taiwan’s supreme court’s decision that there was no argument against marriage equality and that it would have no bearing on anyone else’s rights.  The various parties in the Legislative Yuan could not come agreement on marriage legislation, so on May 19, 2019, Taiwan maggaige equality supposedly became automatic.

A year on, that claim has proven to be a farce.  There is no “equality” when some are excluded from the rights that others enjoy.  Perhaps some of the four thousand couples who married in the past year may benefit from this, but others do not and face discrimination.

If a cisgender binary foreigner wants to marry a cisgender Taiwanese national of the opposite cisgender, they can, and their marriage will be recognized and the foreigner have all the rights and privileges of marriage.

If an LGBTQIA foreigner wants to marry a Taiwanese national, that marriage will only be recognized by Taiwan if the foreigner’s own country would recognize it.  In other words, an LGBTQIA foreigner from a bigoted and repressive state cannot legally marry a Taiwanese person, not even they would face oppression, imprisonment or murder in their former country.  If Cheetolini manages to overturn rights in the US, marriages between Taiwanese and those from the US would be voided.

This is not marriage equality.  It is exclusion at best, pandering to oppressive regimes at worst especially for foreigners who have emigrated from (read: escaped) a country where their very existence was under threat.  And because their marriage is not recognized, they could be forced back against their will if their residency visa expires.  Emphasis below is mine:

LGBT groups launch petition to allow cross-national same-sex marriage

Taipei, May 9 (CNA) Scores of volunteers from LGBT groups in Taiwan embarked on a signature campaign Saturday to petition the government on laws that restrict same-sex marriage between couples from different countries, under certain circumstances.

[. . .]

The petition stems from the Act Governing the Choice of Law in Civil Matters Involving Foreign Elements that in effect excludes couples that are from countries where gay marriage is prohibited, and also in cases where one partner is from such a country.

Under that act, people from all but 28 countries in the world are excluded, the [Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights] said.

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Rights group urges Taiwan to allow cross-national same-sex marriage

Taipei, May 17 (CNA) The Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights (TAPCPR) and several same-sex couples on Sunday urged Taiwan’s government to allow same-sex marriages between couples from different countries.

[. . .]

“For many cross-national same-sex couples, including me and my wife, our efforts to be with our loved ones are symbolized by our old plane ticket stubs,” said Kaili Lai, a Taiwanese LGBT married to a Malaysian Tan Bee Guat.

According to Lai, she and Tan held a simple wedding in Malaysia in 2016 with the blessings of their parents.

Tan was not allowed to live in Taiwan, however because she was not a Taiwanese citizen and could not get a residence certificate because her marriage to Lai was not recognized.

They had to fly frequently between Taiwan and Malaysia to see each other, leaving Tan little choice but to enroll in a university in Taiwan as a freshmen at the age of 35 to be able to stay in Taiwan on a student visa.

But Tan is graduating next month and will have to enroll in a graduate school program to continue staying in Taiwan.

Another cross-national same-sex couple, Joyce from Taiwan and Queenie from the Philippines, are facing the same predicament — Queenie has to enroll in National Taiwan Normal University for the same purpose.

These are not the only people.  There is at least one person from Honduras and others from Latin American countries where they could face violence (physical assault, the torture of “reparative therapy”), imprisonment or murder for being LGBTQIA.

There is no justifiable reason for an exclusionary rule, especially since (as I write) Taiwan is offering refugee status to people from Hong Kong who have no personal, familial, social or legal connection to the country.

93 percent say marriage equality law has had no impact on them

Taipei, May 15 (CNA) As Taiwan approaches the one-year anniversary of its legalization of same-sex marriage on May 24, nearly 93 percent of Taiwanese say the policy has had no impact on them, according to the results of a survey released Friday.

At a press conference, Equal Love Taiwan — a coalition of five LGBT rights organizations — announced the results of an April 29-May 2 survey it conducted on the Taiwan public’s attitudes toward a range of issues affecting the LGBT community.