Join.Love: A Sociotechnical Genealogy of the Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage

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HCI researchers interested in enhancing democracy have introduced methods and technologies that support democratic political processes, such as voting, and more broadly on empowering people to more fully participate in an increasingly technologized world. The aspiration for technologies to support meaningful democratic outcomes is not misplaced. In 2019, headlines around the world announced that Taiwan had become the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage, an impressive political achievement. But it was also an impressive technical achievement, the outcome of a concerted effort to develop responsive and impactful direct democracy platforms. We offer a sociotechnical genealogy of the process, informed by theory of deliberative democracy. We identify three opportunities for future HCI contributions: supporting less visible consensus-es, developing civic journeys, and engaging in deliberative experience design.