Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Friday voiced her support for marriage equality, a day before the annual gay pride parade in Taipei. Some have viewed it as a step forward from the support of civil partnerships she announced during her previous presidential campaign, but some considered it merely paying lip service, as there was no promise of substantive moves such as legislation.
The rainbow flag of LGBT pride and diversity has recently become a well-known icon in Taiwan, thanks to the efforts of various activist groups’ long-standing effort and pop star Chang Hui-mei’s (張惠妹, A-mei) vociferous support for the community — her concert at the Taipei Arena this year saw a 30m by 60m rainbow flag unfurled over the audience.
Another key factor was probably the surge in Facebook profile pictures covered in rainbow colors after the US Supreme Court ruled in June that same-sex marriages were legal nationwide.
Tsai’s team has been tapping the heavily charged rainbow motif for her campaign, selling MRT EasyCards printed with Tsai’s campaign logo (a circle in various shades of green, the DPP’s color) as a fundraiser; the 18,000 sets sold out in 15 minutes after going on sale online on Oct. 15.
The building housing Tsai’s national campaign headquarters was lit with six colored beams before Saturday’s gay pride parade, which in another show of support saw the DPP officially participate in the march for the first time.
Tsai’s presidential campaign has been progressive in its responsiveness in the form of policy platforms toward minority groups such as Aborigines and Southeast Asian immigrants. However, Tsai has been hesitant to make concrete promises to the LGBT community in terms of legislation, which is the clearest hurdle facing the gay rights movement.
While one of the DPP’s slogans for the Jan. 16 presidential and legislative elections has been “legislative majority” — which would be a first in Taiwan’s history if achieved — the passage of a marriage equality bill, if truly endorsed by the DPP, should clearly be on the party’s political agenda.
Despite being the first presidential candidate to voice support for the “idea” of marriage equality, Tsai on Saturday was more non-committal or elusive when fielding questions from reporters about such a bill. Without giving a clear “yes” or “no,” Tsai said it was “something that society needs to tackle together as a whole, in which some are supportive while others are more reserved.”
However, that is simply falling back on the “social consensus as a requirement” rhetoric that the government has used to defer related discussion. For example, the Ministry of Justice conducted an online vote from August to last month on public receptiveness toward same-sex marriage, but said that the results were “for reference only” when the poll found about 60 percent of respondents were in favor of it.
Some of the DPP lawmakers who are now making the biggest show of support for the bill once told legislative officials that the issues of rights and equality should not be subjected to majoritarianism.
One day after the 2011 gay pride parade, which with more than 50,000 participants had been the nation’s biggest so far, a 13-year-old boy committed suicide by jumping off a building at his school after being teased for years over his “feminine traits.”
A proactive stance by the government and legal institutions could serve as a bulwark against misguided biases and prejudices, which are rarely eradicated by a show of hands.
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