A new species of Taiwanese land snail has been named Aegista diversifamilia, meaning diverse human families, to honor the current struggle for same-sex marriage in Taiwan.

“When we were preparing the manuscript it was a period when Taiwan and many other countries and states were struggling for the recognition of same-sex marriage rights. It reminded us that Pulmonata land snails are hermaphrodite animals, which means they have both male and female reproductive organs in single individual,” said co-author Yen-Chang Lee. “They represent the diversity of sex orientation in the animal kingdom. We decided that maybe this is a good occasion to name the snail to remember the struggle for the recognition of same-sex marriage rights.”

A bill to legalize same-sex marriage in Taiwan has been stalled since October 2013 by the Parliament’s judiciary committee. At a recent rally thousands of people in the country demonstrated in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage. It remains illegal in much of Asia as well.

This new species was once considered to be Aegista subchinensis, first described in 1884 and long thought to be spread across the width of Taiwan. Researchers found however that those in the east shared more in common with an island species, citing a larger and flatter shell first noticed by Lee in 2003.

“When we examined the phylogeny from each gene it suggested that the eastern Aegista subchinensis was more closely related to Aegista vermis, a similar land snail species inhabited in Ishigaki Island, than the western Aegista subchinensis,” lead author and PhD candidate with National Taiwan Normal University, Chih-Wei Huang, said.