Premier to try to send gay marriage bill to Legislature by year-end

Taipei, Oct. 28 (CNA) Premier Lai Ching-te (賴清德) said Saturday that the Executive Yuan will do its best to send its own version of a same-sex marriage bill to the Legislative Yuan before the end of the current legislative session.

In a Facebook post, Lai said he has mentioned several times that the Executive Yuan will draft a bill that protects the marriage freedom and equality of same-sex couples, in accordance with a Constitutional Court ruling handed down in May, and send it to the Legislative Yuan for review.

"We will seek the greatest consensus of society in the most active way," he wrote, adding that the Executive Yuan will try to send the bill for review before the end of the current legislative session, which will finish at the end of this year or early next year.

"I support the idea that people who love each other should have the right to be together," Lai wrote.

His comments came on the day when tens of thousands of people marched in the annual lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) pride parade in Taipei to call for legalization of same-sex marriage and better protection of LGBT rights.

Taiwan's Constitutional Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage in May and asked the authorities to amend or enact relevant laws to legalize same-sex marriage within two years.

An amendment to the Civil Code that will legalize same-sex marriage and allow married gay couples to adopt children passed an initial reading in the Legislative Yuan late last year, but has been stalled since then.

Meanwhile, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) also wrote on her Facebook page that day that the Constitutional Court ruling has cemented the country's direction toward marriage equality.

Tsai said her Democratic Progressive Party will continue to do its best to come up with laws that abide by the Constitutional Court ruling, but that also assure the unity of society.