Chi Chia-wei
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Chi Chia-wei (; born 2 August 1958) is a Taiwanese
gay rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , 3 ...
activist. In 2020, he was included on ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
''s list of the 100 most influential people in the world.


Activism

In March 1986, Chi became the first person in Taiwan to come out as gay on national television, organizing a press conference to announce both his sexuality and his launch of a campaign to prevent the spread of AIDS/HIV. Chi also advocated for recognition of same-sex unions. In 1986, Chi applied to the Taipei District Court notary office with a request for a notarized marriage license, which was promptly rejected; his appeal to the
Legislative Yuan The Legislative Yuan is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan) located in Taipei. The Legislative Yuan is composed of 113 members, who are directly elected for 4-year terms by people of the Taiwan Area through a parallel v ...
was also rejected in harsh terms. Soon afterward, on 15 August, he was detained by police with being involved with a robbery, which he denied. Sentenced to a five-year sentence, he was imprisoned for 162 days that year, after which he was subsequently pardoned by a judge and freed. His imprisonment was customary of political dissidents of the late
White Terror White Terror is the name of several episodes of mass violence in history, carried out against anarchists, communists, socialists, liberals, revolutionaries, or other opponents by conservative or nationalist groups. It is sometimes contrasted wit ...
period, which ended the next year. He was detained at the Tucheng Detention Center and was kept in a room with 4 other political prisoners including further president
Chen Shui-bian Chen Shui-bian (; born 12 October 1950) is a retired Taiwanese politician and lawyer who served as the president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2000 to 2008. Chen was the first president from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) whic ...
. The other 3 prisoners all had wives who sent food into prison, which was divided equally between the 4 of them. After meeting his current partner in 1988, Chi worked as the country's only AIDS/HIV activist, operating a halfway house for HIV and AIDS patients and advocating for safer sex among the country's LGBT community. In 2000, he achieved controversy in the Taiwanese LGBT community when he struck a deal with a local credit company to hire people with AIDS to work as debt collectors, which campaigners condemned as exploitative to endangered people. After the Ministry of Justice ruled that marriage was only allowed for opposite-sex couples in 1994, Chi attempted to obtain a license again in 1998, eventually appealing the case in October 2000 to the Council of Grand Justice to offer a justification for their refusal to grant him a marriage license. A judge on the panel rejected his appeal due to the appeal not specifying the existing laws and regulations inconsistent with the Constitution. On 21 March 2013, he once more applied for a license; when he was denied, he appealed upward to the Taipei City Government's Department of Civil Affairs, who referred the constitutionality question to the Taipei Higher Administrative Court and then the Supreme Administrative Court in 2015. Both Chi and the Department requested a constitutional interpretation on the issue and asked the court to focus on whether Taiwan's
Civil Code A civil code is a codification of private law relating to property, family, and obligations. A jurisdiction that has a civil code generally also has a code of civil procedure. In some jurisdictions with a civil code, a number of the core ar ...
should allow same-sex marriage and if not, whether that violates articles under the
Constitution of the Republic of China The Constitution of the Republic of China is the fifth and current constitution of the Republic of China (ROC), ratified by the Kuomintang during the session on 25 December 1946, in Nanjing, and adopted on 25 December 1947. The constitution, ...
pertaining to equality and the freedom to marry. On 24 May 2017, the Constitutional Court ruled in ''Interpretation No. 748'' that the Civil Code's restriction of marriage is unconstitutional, and ruled that same-sex couples will be allowed to marry on or before 24 May 2019.


Media

In the Taiwanese film ''
Your Name Engraved Herein ''Your Name Engraved Herein'' () is a 2020 Taiwanese romantic drama directed by Patrick Kuang-Hui Liu and starring Edward Chen, Jing-Hua Tseng and Leon Dai. The film premiered in Taiwan on September 30, followed by a global release on Netflix o ...
'' the director pays
homage Homage (Old English) or Hommage (French) may refer to: History *Homage (feudal) /ˈhɒmɪdʒ/, the medieval oath of allegiance *Commendation ceremony, medieval homage ceremony Arts *Homage (arts) /oʊˈmɑʒ/, an allusion or imitation by one arti ...
to Chi, a character based upon him can be seen wearing the famous costume partly made of condoms and holding a sign stating "homosexuality is not a disease". The production team spoke to Chi before including this scene.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chi, Chia-wei 1958 births HIV/AIDS activists Taiwanese gay men Taiwanese LGBT rights activists Prisoners and detainees of Taiwan Taiwanese prisoners and detainees Living people