Blessed by the Buddhist Master Shih Chao-hwei, Yu Ya-ting and Huang Mei-yu became Taiwan’s first lesbian couple to be married in a Buddhist ceremony
AFP reports:
A Buddhist cleric?s decision to wed two women in Taiwan is the latest sign that obstacles to same-sex unions are quietly coming down in Asia, with religion posing less of a hindrance than in the West.
Fish Huang and her partner You Ya-ting, both 30, received their blessings from Shih Chao-hui, a female Buddhist master, at a monastery in north Taiwan’s Taoyuan county over the weekend — and no one seemed to raise an eyebrow.
“I think this is their human right. They can choose freely to get married and we should respect them,” said Chih Chun, a Buddhist nun who attended the ceremony.
“It makes no difference if couples are heterosexual or homosexual, as long as they are in love and they are happy.”
The wedding — a first for Taiwanese Buddhism — comes as evidence is mounting that Asians and their governments are quietly revising their views on same-sex marriage even as the subject remains a highly charged issue in the United States this election year.
Read the full story via AFP
