Taipei: Taiwan will hold a public vote on whether the island’s civil law should recognise same-sex marriage, two election officials told Reuters on Tuesday, reviving a debate over whether a separate law should be enacted for civil unions between homosexual couples.An activist group submitted a petition in August to Taiwan‘s Central Election Commission, proposing a vote on the issue and asking for a separate law to be enacted for same-sex unions, something it said would defend “family values”.After a month-long review, the commission decided on Tuesday that the referendum would be held on November 24, the same day when the self-ruled island is set to hold mayoral and magisterial elections.In May last year, Taiwan’s constitutional court, known as Judicial Yuan, declared that same-sex couples have the legal right to marry. It was the first such ruling in Asia and the court had given two years to amend the required law for the same. “If relevant laws are not amended or enacted within the said two years, two persons of the same sex who intend to create the said permanent union shall be allowed to have their marriage registration effectuated,” the court had said.Taipei has always had a vibrant queer culture expounded by the underground gay bars before the country became democratic in 1996. While hate crimes were never really reported, these bars were routinely raided by the police who sought to charge the queer population with just about anything. Even though Taiwan had an autocratic government till 1996, it never criminalised consensual same-sex behaviour between adults. Mostly because of widespread ignorance and the refusal to acknowledge queer identities.In 1998, Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association, the oldest LBTQI support group in the country was formed which was the first to identify the rise in suicides among LGBTQI youth. The difference between the earlier underground queer culture and the one that began with the formation of the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association is the coming of democracy and inhabiting a free, liberal space. The biggest contention that the Taiwanese LGBTQ community faces is from the Christian populace which also exerts considerable political influence, especially in Kuomintang party which has always had a lukewarm response to marriage equality.(with agency inputs)