Members of the Truku Tribe in Taiwan’s Central Mountain Range have proposed an amendment to Taiwan’s aboriginal autonomy law to include gender and sexual equality, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency. Under the current law, aboriginal tribes can choose to form autonomous regions alone, or with other aboriginal tribes. The law also enforces equality among the residents in the autonomous regions as well as affirming political, economic, social, educational, and cultural rights. The proposed amendment will state that all residents living in the Truku Tribe Autonomy District are equal, regardless of gender, sexual affiliation, religion, ethnicity, social class, or political identification. It will also include the recognition of same-sex marriage among the Truku people, according to the Central News Agency. If the autonomy law is passed by the Legislative Yuan, it would be a model of human rights and probably the first of its kind in the world, said Tiela Youdao, Executive Director of the Promote Truku Tribe Autonomy Committee on the Central News Agency Web site. Tiela also said that if the autonomy bill is blocked by the Legislative Yuan, the Truku tribe members will still observe the Truku autonomy law as if it had been approved.
