 In August 2012, two women participated in what the media called Taiwan's first same-sex marriage ceremony.Around the same time, President Ma Ying-jeou, Chairman of the governing Kuomintang (KMT), restated his respect for LGBT rights but said public support was needed before the government could approve a same-sex marriage law.The Ministry of Justice's Department of Legal Affairs commissioned a study on legal recognitions of same-sex unions in Canada, Germany and France in 2012, but after pressure from critics, commissioned a further study for 2013 on the state of same-sex relationships in Asian countries for comparison.