A drastic change has occurred in Taiwanese society over the past decade, with LGBT issues becoming an increasingly intense part of public discourse. Regardless of a person’s stance, media reports and street demonstrations, as well as a constitutional interpretation and several referendum proposals, mean that no one can avoid exposure to the debate.
After the passage of the Gender Equity Education Act (性別平等教育法) in 2004, Taiwan has institutionalized and popularized gender-equality education. Young people who have received such education have a basic understanding of the diverse and complex nature of gender.
However, marriage equality and same-sex education are facing an unprecedented counterattack. Some religious groups, such as the Alliance of Taiwan Religious Groups for the Protection of the Family, have launched a war against the LGBT community through legislative lobbying, publications, street protests and on-campus propaganda.
Although they like to say that they have gay friends and respect them, they calumniate LGBT people using tricks such as misinterpretation, fabrication and speculation.
Even academic research is used as a tool against marriage equality.
For example, a master’s thesis that studied parental attitudes toward same-sex education in local high schools said that an academic advocated the viewpoint that a person’s sexual orientation is not set until age 20 to 25, whereas the academic was actually criticizing the belief.
The same thesis claimed that another academic — who described AIDS prevention policy in Taiwan from a public-health perspective — found that the number of people with AIDS in Taiwan had increased following the introduction of same-sex education, but the words “same-sex education” never appeared in the study.
This is not a matter of misunderstanding, but an intentional fabrication.
The author also deliberately conflated teachers’ manuals and student textbooks, leading parents to believe that LGBT-related content for teachers’ self-learning would appear in class.
Although the legalization of same-sex marriage is intended to remove the restriction that marriage is a union between a man and a woman, the author misled readers by saying that such education promotes polygamy.
Finally, the thesis used a biased sample of 40 percent Protestants and Catholics to represent all parents, even though Protestants and Catholics account for a mere 6 percent of Taiwan’s population.
As a result, a thesis full of misinterpreted literature, biased sampling and incorrect statistical methodology has been used by religious groups to promote their message.
This might be the 21st century, but some people still think that men and women should be treated differently and have separate duties. Such people are also opposed to including the gender spectrum in high-school teaching materials.
When LGBT people first sense that their orientation differs from the majority of people, they sense hostility and rejection in the media and from others. Although they have done nothing wrong, they are made to feel ashamed of their orientation and might believe that they must hide it.
The message behind three referendum proposals against marriage equality and same-sex education is: LGBT people do not deserve equality.
This is precisely the reason that so many people who used to think the LGBT issue was none of their concern are now standing up in support of marriage equality.
Bih Herng-dar is a professor in National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of Building and Planning.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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