As tens of thousands cheered in May last year when the same-sex marriage ban was ruled unconstitutional, Jennifer Lu (呂欣潔) knew that the battle was far from over.

“I didn’t feel happy or excited because we still needed to go back to the legislature and make them pass the bill we want,” says Lu, who is coordinator of the Marriage Equality Coalition (MEC). “The ruling was an amazing moment for the LGBT movement in Taiwan, but as a leader of the campaign, I was quite worried about people losing their motivation to continue.”

Lu’s concerns have proved prescient. The Council of Grand Justices gave the legislature two years to legalize same-sex marriage — either to amend the Civil Code’s gendered language, as LGBTQ activists prefer, or to create a separate same-sex civil partnership law.

However, in April, the Central Election Commission approved three referendum proposals from anti-LGBTQ organizations that, if passed, could create a separate law for same-sex couples, restrict the definition of marriage in the Civil Code to unions between men and women and eliminate education about homosexuality for younger students.

Creating a law specifically for same-sex couples rather than removing gendered language from the Civil Code would deny gay people the title of “marriage,” implying that it is distinct from heterosexual partnerships. If the separate law is not identical to the Civil Code, activists fear they will need years of additional litigation to achieve the same rights.

As anti-LGBTQ organizations rush to gather the 281,745 signatures needed by the end of this month for the proposals to coincide with the November municipal elections, marriage equality activists face difficulties mobilizing opposition.

LOW ‘CRISIS AWARENESS’

Paowuchien (拋物線), a pseudonym for founder of LGBTQ organization Rainbow Boulevard, says “people lack crisis awareness.”

Paowuchien cites as an example a gay cafe owner with whom she wanted to collaborate to petition the government to revise the Civil Code.

“Why do we have to do this? Hasn’t it already passed?” he asked her. Read more via Taipei Times