Do you see the rainbow?
It is astonishing to see how society’s view on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people is transforming, judging from recent legal and social developments in Taiwan. Gays used to be considered criminals who could be charged with committing obscenities, now many are active citizens who knock on the three legal doors to demand their basic human rights, to address the way they want to live at work and at home, and to enjoy the happiness heterosexual people enjoy in everyday live.
Chou — who was wrongly fired from his job in a hospital because he dressed as a woman — won an administrative petition to challenge gender identity related discrimination.
Chi Chia-Wei (祁家威), a committed gay rights activist, filed an administrative lawsuit following the rejection of a same-sex marriage registration application by a household registration office in Taipei. Chi lost the case and applied for a constitutional interpretation in the Council of Grand Justices. The open session to decide whether the civil code allows only opposite-sex marriage or if the code is unconstitutional is to begin on Friday and is expected to finish on May 24.
Not only have these administrative and judicial challenges put forward by those in the LGBT community begun to change discourse in Taiwan, but also legislative efforts initiated by feminist groups and LGBT non-governmental organizations are slowly changing the landscape. These activists are not hiding from the cameras, instead they demand to be seen, to be heard and respected by law.
Will Taiwan become the first Asian nation to achieve the “marriage equality” ideal?
On the other end of the spectrum, the True-Love or Protection of Family Values Students Organization has launched a forceful campaign to object to amendments to the civil code and marriage equality.
I feel at this moment the question should not be “when will we see the rainbow,” but rather “do you see the rainbow?”
Chen Yi-chien
Shih Hsin University
Democracy and punishment
Did you know that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) had a wild sex orgy with Chinese gangsters? That former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) engaged in child abuse? That global warming is a liberal conspiracy? If your first impression was that this must be wrong, that is because they are all obviously fake stories.
So congratulations to the government for taking the fight to fake news (“Online system to combat ‘fake news’,” “NCC to meet with social networks on ‘fake news’,” March 17, page 3).
Compare this righteous behavior with the current depravity which emanates from the White House and its associated post-truth media on an almost daily Twittery basis. What extremist politicians and media do around the world is take the freedom of speech to its absurd and destructive extreme.
The purpose of freedom of speech is to utter opinions, based on facts, about what should or should not happen in the world, but not to spread lies, smear people’s reputations, and even endanger lives.
To defend such practices under the umbrella of “free speech” is a dangerous misrepresentation and misinterpretation of an important basic right.
If we overextend a right, then it becomes a menace to the safety of the people the right is supposed to protect. No right is absolute, it is always framed by interpretation, limits and restrictions. Consequently, we must not live in a world where spreading hate, lies and rumors is allowed or even rewarded, as in the case of the election of US President Donald Trump.
Another overextension of supposed rights can be seen on Taiwan’s streets. Too many drivers take too many liberties with their “right to drive” and do not feel the need to restrict their driving style to be safe and considerate in interest of others (“Missing the boat,” March 17, page 8).
Given how little effort Taiwan’s police spend on enforcing traffic rules, one wonders how effective the enforcement of the drive against fake news will be. Too often the government tries to grab the headlines by passing a law, but then nothing changes because of a lack of enforcement (“Fig-leaf environmentalism,” June 11, 2012, page 8).
Without punishment, there can be no civilized society. In many areas, Taiwan is lacking in effective punishment due to its hands-off approach of law enforcement.
For society to function, human behavior must be restricted in reasonable ways. Go too far and you end up with totalitarianism. However, by not going far enough you end up with a dysfunctional society.
Such societies collapse into anarchy, as no rules are enforced, or end up totalitarian because anarchy allows for a demagogue to step in to offer some kind of order.
Like Trump, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is an example of where a dysfunctional democracy became the breeding ground for a non-democratic leader.
Flora Faun
Taipei
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