Abstract
Taiwan displays the greatest tolerance for sexual minorities in Asia and will be thefirst Asian state to legalize same-sex marriage. In May 2017, a panel of grand justicesof the Constitutional Court ruled that the definition of marriage as a union between a
man and a women in Taiwan’s civil law violated constitutional guarantees of equalprotection. The panel also ruled that the current law should be amended within twoyears in order to let same-sex marriages be registered.
Sexuality in Singapore is micromanaged by the state through its variousapparatuses and agencies including written laws. Most significantly homosexuality
still remains illegal in Singapore. Yet it has also been hailed by many as one of the new
emerging gay capitals of Asia because the public LGBT party was held from 2001 to
2004 and the annual Pink Dot rally organized by sexual minorities and theirsupporters began in 2009 and over 26,000 people attended it in 2016.
In Japan, there is no law discriminating against sexual minorities and transgenderpeople can undergo gender reassignment surgery on the condition that he or she isdiagnosed with gender identity disorder. Many sexual minorities however are afraid ofcoming out because transgender people who do not want to have a phenotypical sex
change are not assumed to exist and there is no law to protect them.
This research aims to analyze what brought these three states such different
attitudes and political processes in order to clarify the consequences on sexual
minority issues as well as the characteristics of each civil society that shape thesedifferences.
The most important factor in Taiwan is that the “free space” has expanded rapidly
after the martial law was lifted in 1987. Sexual minorities who had been suppressed
for a long time started standing up for their own rights. Secondly thanks to the Gender
Equal Employment Bill (2001) and the Gender Equal Education Bill (2004), the young
generation regards gender equality as natural. Thirdly the Taiwanese government
which had isolated itself from the international community for a long time, has
supported the expansion of the rights of sexual minorities to show to the world that
Taiwan is a democratic country.
Three factors can be said about Singapore. Firstly it inherited the British penalcode prohibiting sexual intercourse of same-sex couples after its independence.
Secondly sexual minorities have been oppressed by the authoritarian government
since independence till today and no democratization movement has occurred so far.

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Lastly the government has strengthened monitoring sexual minorities and at the sametime highly recommended traditional “Family Values” (heterosexual couples withchildren) for fear of HIV／AIDS. Same-sex couples were regarded as an unstable factor
in the society since they did not give birth to children. Under the free and generous
political atmosphere in the late 1990s, however, the penal code prohibiting
homosexuality was amended but the section 377A which criminalizes an act of “grossindecency” between males was not abolished. Recently the “culture war” concerning
the abolition or the continuation of 377A has become intense and the government has
started regulating movements for sexual minorities.
On the other hand, the idea of sexual role allotment（husbands work outside andwives stay home) has been deeply rooted in the society and many regard a legallymarried heterosexual couple as normal in Japan. In addition, a law concerning gender
identity disorder maintains or even strengthens the present legal system supporting
the assumption of heterosexuality. These days however some local self-governing
bodies such as Shibuya Ward in Tokyo have started legally officiating same-sex
partnerships, giving gay or lesbian couples the same rights as married heterosexualcouples. Even some conservative politicians admit the Japanese society is changing as
the movement has gained much support with the public.

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