The victory of the anti-LGBT referendum in November, by a large margin, was a blow to the struggle for marriage equality in Taiwan. Taiwan’s LGBT movement, seen as a pioneering force across the Asian continent, now faces a serious test. The far-right anti-LGBT forces who were behind this referendum blame social problems, like low birth rate, on LGBT communities, making them a scapegoat for the current social crisis, in order to cover up the real causes of the crisis: capitalist political parties and capitalism. The anti-LGBT referendum got 7.04 million yes votes, compared to 3.44 million for the pro-LGBT referendum. On the following day, Taiwan’s government announced it would draw up a special law giving same-sex marriage a separate status outside of existing marriage laws. With the success of their referendum the anti-LGBT forces have launched further attacks, opposing any recognition of same-sex “marriage” but only “partnership”.