Does "love is love" translate to marriage?

My husband and I were watching the latest season of?The Crown?last night. Yes, we are a bit late to the party on this one. It was the episode where Charles and Diana’s divorce is settled. The episode also featured other couples, the reasons why they were getting divorced and when the court approved their divorce.

He commented on how easy it was to get divorced compared to getting married. And about how “legal” divorce is. I thought Charles and Diana’s wedding seemed very hard, with the media and public scrutiny. Potentially on par with their divorce.

?But marriage, beyond being the modern take on love and romance?is?a legal relationship defined by governments and legislation, it forms the basis of family units within society, and allows the allocation of resources to families.

?This is why marriage equality is so important, beyond same sex or non-binary couples having equal access to something hetrosexual couples enjoy.?

??Let's have a look at marriage equality across Asia Pacific.

?In November 2022?Singapore decriminalised gay sex?by repealing colonial-era Section 377A in the Penal Code, which was great. However, on the other hand?the government took steps to “protect” the heterosexual definition of marriage (between a man and a woman) against legal challenge.?In Singapore if you aren’t allowed to marry you can’t access housing, and if you are single you can’t access housing until a certain age. So my second home has gone backwards in marriage equality.

?In?Tokyo same sex marriage is banned?resulting in no legal protections for same-sex families. The courts have recognised that this is a human rights issue which is a positive step towards change.

?The status of marriage is still changing, and in places improving.?

?The first country to legalise same sex marriage in the region was?New Zealand on?19 August 2013.?Australia followed on 9 December 2017. I was living in Singapore at the time and voted online to change the constitution.?

?Taiwan?was the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage on 24 May 2019 and?recently announced?it would recognise transnational same sex marriages (except if one of the spouses is from China)

?Parts of?Cambodia?provide same-sex couples with some limited rights and benefits, including hospital visitation rights and some cities in?Japan?issue symbolic certificates for same-sex couples,?In?Hong Kong, the same-sex partners of residents can receive spousal visas and spousal benefits.

?In India and Thailand in 2022 legislation has been proposed to legalise same sex marriage and proposals to recognise non-marriage partnerships have occured in The Phillipines and Thailand. See this?wikipedia page?for more details.

?In February, the month of love, there is still a way to go with marriage equality across the Asia Pacific region, but we are seeing changes step by step.?

How does your organisation recognise same sex partnerships or marriages. How do you allocate benefits like health care and parental leave?

If you need an audit of how inclusive your benefits are,?book a FREE discovery call

Lisa xx

P.S. While we are on the topic of equality, if you want to run the best International Women's Day event ever (one that actually has a lasting effect beyond the 8th March),?join my 3 Day Challenge.