Fridae

Tsai Ing-wen, leading presidential candidate and head of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) looks set to become Taiwan’s first female leader in elections next month.

Thai is well ahead in the polls and has openly expressed support for same-sex marriage. In October she posted a video on her Facebook page saying: "Everyone is equal before love."

Yet some LGBT activists worry that the DPP is merely making a nod to change in the hope of garnering votes and that the DPP may eventually temper its support for gay marriage because it risks alienating the party's more conservative supporters.

Green Party-Social Democratic Party Alliance, a new coalition, are putting their own candidates forward and pushing an agenda of LGBT equality.

Of the 16 candidates put forward by the Alliance five are openly gay and have made gay rights the centre of their platform.
"We need to have political figures who make it their priority in parliament to force the two parties to move forward," says one of the five, Victoria Hsu, 43, who also leads campaign group Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights (TAPCPR).

Of the more than 500 legislative candidates across the parties, so far 84 have committed to supporting a marriage equality Bill in the new term if they are elected, Ms Hsu's campaign group also said.
In many ways Taiwan is leading way for LGBT equality in Asia. The country has one of the largest LGBT pride parades each year and support for same-sex marriage stands at 59 per cent, according to an online survey by the Ministry of Justice earlier this year.

However, the same-sex marriage bill introduced in 2013 failed to garner enough support from lawmakers to get passed its first reading.

A new bill will need to be introduced by whoever finds themselves in power in January.