The people who are married, do they not get the same legal status as…?
OK, because this was about the inheritance and so on?
That was the previous law, was it?
When you mentioned the future changes or possibilities…?
Is it not legal now? Would it not be legal?
You’re doing now a sort of dialog…?
There’s nothing…?
Do you feel that the Taiwanese society is still very divided by generation when it comes to, say, attitudes to same sex…?
No, but when it comes to same sex marriage, for example? Is most of the support for it from young people?
That would take time then?
Yeah, OK. Can I ask you, I don’t know what your views are, but in terms of, say, rights for trans-gender people, that has not been fully resolved?
No, but I mean, is that an area that you’re promoting debate on, or…?
That was a reverse mentor in the ministry of education.
Oh, really?
In terms of having legal status, is that satisfactory?
For foreign residents, or…?
What about for local citizens?
That helps to promote.
Do you think it would be possible to get that approved and make law in the near future?
I guess my question is, how far have the norms changed?
Are there many such people here?
If you don’t mind me asking, when you made that choice, was it very difficult at that time?
Sorry, I used the wrong word.
So when your awareness of this issue was developing, did it feel like it was very difficult in society at that time?
You never felt much resistance from society.
You do feel that that consciousness or that attitude, is becoming more common in Taiwan?
Was that last year when it was changed?
I didn’t know that. That’s quite significant.
In terms of identity in general, this is new.
One last question. I don’t know if you want to answer it.
For example, I’ve been living in Mainland China. We’ve been watching society developing a lot in the last 20 years. Of course, it became much more open in many ways, but recently we perhaps see that the government is…
…less open to many types of difference. When you look at the mainland, do you feel that that’s a society… that Taiwan and the mainland one day can grow together? How do you see the situation for people there?
From your office, can you actually go and do things in Hong Kong?
You weren’t physically there.
What was the talk in Hangzhou?
Was that recently?
Do you think that there’s a lot of interest in that from the people in the PRC, grassroots?
Can I just add one final question – I’ve talked to lots of people about different issues related to gender, related to what the government is doing. Just on a really simplistic question, do you think it’s important that Taiwan now has a female president?
She’s still the first one. [laughs]
No, sure.
In terms of the achievement, that a woman for the first time became a president.
Is Taiwan now a sufficiently equal society, would you say, in gender equality?
Finland just made a big breakthrough.
There’s much more. There’s still more that needs to be done.
Is that an area that can come within your remit, in terms of education?
Thank you so much.
