Seven Policies For Government to Consider--- 4. Legalization of Gay Marriage

Case Study of Taiwan’s Experience of Legalized Gay Marriage

As of today, Taiwan is the only Asian country that has legalized gay marriage (since 2019). The enhanced human rights and social inclusion alone raise the image of Taiwan among Western countries. Reputation aside, legalization of gay marriage also bring about moderate economic benefit to Taiwan. Firstly, Taiwan has seen an increase in LGBTQ+ tourism. Same-sex couples from other countries, particularly in Asia, may choose Taiwan as a destination for weddings and honeymoons, boosting the tourism industry. Also, the Progressive social policies can make Taiwan more attractive to international businesses and talent, particularly those that value diversity and inclusion.

Hong Kong Case

While the effect of legalized gay marriage has largely been beneficial to Hong Kong, there are a few social and political differences between Hong Kong and Taiwan, that makes Hong Kong case significantly different from Taiwan. Nonetheless, at the end of the day, legalized gay marriage will bring more benefits than harms to Hong Kong.

As mentioned, the harms are social and political. Socially, Hong Kong’s society is much closed about same-sex love, let alone same-sex marriage. Same sex which means the society is not ready for legalized marriage yet. Homosexuality is still a taboo in Hong Kong, which means the society is not ready for gay marriage yet. Politically, as Mainland China is still closed to same sex marriage (though anecdotes reveal that the Mainland Chinese homosexuality reception is higher than that of Hong Kong). It is possible that the Central Government will dislike such progressive social movement in Hong Kong.

But as mentioned above, we still have faith that gay marriage is workable in Hong Kong. First and foremost, aside from benefiting from gay marriage tourism, legalization of gay marriage will draw much more Mainland and international talents that tend to stay longer in Hong Kong as they can more easily build a family in Hong Kong then. Mainland China can make Hong Kong a testing point on the impact of legalized marriage on talent attraction, once again demonstrating Hong Kong’s value to Central Government.

Second, because the gain outlast the coast, the government should roll out more propaganda on promoting equality between heterosexuality and homosexuality. Though LGBT right is largely acknowledged in jobs from the Government or western firms, SMEs mostly still do not have such clause and may discriminate against gay applicants. Though such SMEs will still face charges by the Equal Opportunities Commission, the society are still neutral or worst yet stand by the side of these SMEs. So a lot of social propaganda should be rolled out to make for social inclusion of gay population.