Beyond Regime Type: National Identity, Institutional Capture, and the Divergent Paths to Same-Sex Marriage in Taiwan and Thailand
Location
FA-152
Start Date
1-5-2026 12:30 PM
Department
Political Science
Abstract
This comparative study challenges the traditional Western idea that successful same-sex marriage legalization requires a fully established, liberal democracy before a state can implement inclusive policies especially in Asian contexts with highly conservative cultures. By examining the legal paradox of Taiwan (a democracy, 2019) and Thailand (a monarchy, 2025), this research argues that same-sex marriage success is independent of regime type. The primary catalyst was the strategic psychological mobilization of local activists, who successfully connected the fight for sexual citizenship with dominant national identity narratives: "De-Sinification" in Taiwan and "Proud to Be Thai" in Thailand. To operationalize this argument, I utilize Integrated Threat Theory (ITT) as an analytical bridge to explain how institutional shifts are preceded by psychological changes in how "the other" is perceived. In Taiwan, activists employed a strategy of “Threat Inversion,” weaponizing the external Realistic Threat (RT) of Chinese political encroachment to neutralize the domestic Symbolic Threat (ST) posed by traditionalist conservatives. By framing LGBTQ+ rights as a marker of Taiwanese sovereignty and democratic distinction from the Mainland, activists provided the political cover for an elite-led judicial bypass. In contrast, Thailand’s victory represented a cultural bottom-up success. Activists utilized the transnational soft power of "Boys' Love" (BL) celebrity culture to directly lower Negative Stereotypes (NS) and Intergroup Anxiety (IA) through sustained media exposure and parasocial interaction. I will test this hypothesis using a mixed-methods approach. The quantitative phase involves a social media sentiment analysis of Taiwanese BL actors (e.g., the HIStory series cast) to measure the effectiveness of "Threat Inversion" framing among youth. Simultaneously, I will conduct a qualitative content analysis of the HIStory narrative evolution tracing the shift from secret dating to explicit marriage scenes as a proxy for the speed of broader cultural acceptance. Ultimately, this project contributes to the "Asian Values" debate by demonstrating that human rights progress is a byproduct of local identity construction. This project culminates in a novel, ITT-based framework that models the "political readiness" for inclusive legislation across other Asian nations.
Faculty Sponsor
Bae Sangmin
Faculty Sponsor
Emily Esposito
Beyond Regime Type: National Identity, Institutional Capture, and the Divergent Paths to Same-Sex Marriage in Taiwan and Thailand
FA-152
This comparative study challenges the traditional Western idea that successful same-sex marriage legalization requires a fully established, liberal democracy before a state can implement inclusive policies especially in Asian contexts with highly conservative cultures. By examining the legal paradox of Taiwan (a democracy, 2019) and Thailand (a monarchy, 2025), this research argues that same-sex marriage success is independent of regime type. The primary catalyst was the strategic psychological mobilization of local activists, who successfully connected the fight for sexual citizenship with dominant national identity narratives: "De-Sinification" in Taiwan and "Proud to Be Thai" in Thailand. To operationalize this argument, I utilize Integrated Threat Theory (ITT) as an analytical bridge to explain how institutional shifts are preceded by psychological changes in how "the other" is perceived. In Taiwan, activists employed a strategy of “Threat Inversion,” weaponizing the external Realistic Threat (RT) of Chinese political encroachment to neutralize the domestic Symbolic Threat (ST) posed by traditionalist conservatives. By framing LGBTQ+ rights as a marker of Taiwanese sovereignty and democratic distinction from the Mainland, activists provided the political cover for an elite-led judicial bypass. In contrast, Thailand’s victory represented a cultural bottom-up success. Activists utilized the transnational soft power of "Boys' Love" (BL) celebrity culture to directly lower Negative Stereotypes (NS) and Intergroup Anxiety (IA) through sustained media exposure and parasocial interaction. I will test this hypothesis using a mixed-methods approach. The quantitative phase involves a social media sentiment analysis of Taiwanese BL actors (e.g., the HIStory series cast) to measure the effectiveness of "Threat Inversion" framing among youth. Simultaneously, I will conduct a qualitative content analysis of the HIStory narrative evolution tracing the shift from secret dating to explicit marriage scenes as a proxy for the speed of broader cultural acceptance. Ultimately, this project contributes to the "Asian Values" debate by demonstrating that human rights progress is a byproduct of local identity construction. This project culminates in a novel, ITT-based framework that models the "political readiness" for inclusive legislation across other Asian nations.