Taiwan may legalize gay marriage

Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian said on Sunday that he is considering abolishing the country's death penalty and legalizing gay marriage, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports. "We want to achieve our goal of building a country on the basis of human rights, and the government is drafting the Human Rights Basic Law," Chen said. "The Human Rights Consultive Committee under the presidential office has a very advanced human rights basic law, which includes replacing the death penalty with life sentences without parole and legalizing homosexual marriage." It is not clear when the proposals would or could become law.