Breakthroughs in LGBT rights overlooked
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In your August 7 op-ed piece “Social tolerance not a substitute for LGBT rights”, reference is made to the fact that “what is considered normal and accepted beyond the continent are not often embraced by Asian countries”.
On the contrary! There are two very recent and glaring examples of the exact opposite in Asia. In 2015 the Vietnamese government abolished the ban on same-sex marriages.
And in May this year the Taiwanese Constitutional Court (the highest court in that country) ruled that current marriage laws are unconstitutional and same-sex couples should have the right to marry.
The Taiwanese court gave the government up to two years to amend the same currently discriminatory laws.
I am quite surprised that the writer of the op-ed piece omitted these salient facts.
Sombat Kapeng
Chiang Mai
