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More pride, less vitriol

After reading the letter ("Same-sex marriage troubling," Sept. 20, page 8) I was quite disappointed that the Taipei Times would print such bigoted vitriol, especially in light of the fact that the it is such a strong supporter of what are supposedly the more "progressive" elements in Taiwanese politics, and with Taiwan's 2005 Pride Parade coming up in less than two weeks, when Taiwan's GLBT community is working hard to raise awareness on important issues facing the community, such as equal protection and rights under the law in Taiwan, and to change the negative views and stereotypes that many Taiwanese still hold toward homosexuals.

Not only are the author's views completely baseless, but the assertion of a link between homosexuality and pedophiles reaks of bigotry and will do nothing but further stereotypes against homosexuals. Something much more worthy of discussion would be the Basic Human Rights Law that was introduced in 2003 that would have given same-sex couples in Taiwan the right to marry and adopt children. It received quite a bit of hype at first, but nothing has been mentioned of it since. That kind of legislation would not only be a milestone for gays in Taiwan, but in all of Asia, and would show that Taiwan is truly becoming a progressive society that respects the rights of everyone. Needless to say, the aforementioned letter was not only extremely tasteless, but quite untimely as well.

David Evseeff
Taipei

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