The ancient Greek word kairos refers to time in the sense of the opportune moment an action should be taken. Kairos is also the name of a news outlet with a strong anti-same-sex marriage stance.
For people on either side of the marriage equality debate in Taiwan, the upcoming referendum on same-sex marriage is a momentous event that demands serious reflection.
The Council of Grand Justices has already ruled on the topic, with Interpretation No. 748 in favor of allowing same-sex couples to register their marriages, and requiring the legislature to amend the law within two years.
What is now needed is reasoned debate, with the two sides communicating their positions with clarity so the public can understand the issues. The two sides must try to understand each other’s view, even though that is not likely to happen.
Put aside the talk of society’s descent into bestiality should same-sex marriages be allowed; forget the contention that marriage equality spells the end of procreation. Those arguments are so ridiculous, facile and offensive that there is no point dwelling on them, while the subtler arguments are more pernicious.
Kairos published an article on Friday last week, titled “Homosexual lifestyle impacts physical and psychological well-being; promoting marriage equality is tantamount to encouraging dangerous lifestyle choices.”
The accompanying photographs were from a gay pride march: One showed a woman holding up a sign that read “Welcome to touch my breasts; just ask me first;” the other showed men dressed in bondage gear, with their buttocks partially exposed, while the caption said the pictures demonstrated the truth of LGBT culture and “permissive ideology.”
The article quotes, and provides links to, various pieces of research purporting to demonstrate the negative effects of a homosexual lifestyle, which it said include permissiveness and increased risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases; a higher likelihood of sexual violence at the hands of a partner; and a higher risk of developing psychological problems “contributing to shorter average lifespans for homosexuals compared to heterosexuals.”
The article also states that long-term monogamous same-sex relationships — “especially between men” — are few and far between.
The veracity of the article’s contentions, and the degree to which the “evidence” might have been taken out of context, misrepresented or cherry-picked notwithstanding, the article could be read as an argument in favor of marriage equality.
Taiwan is relatively tolerant of the LGBT community. It was not always so. Even now, many LGBT people are reluctant to come out for fear of prejudice, ostracization, ridicule or worse.
The culture that has arisen in the LGBT community would have been shaped to one degree or the other by the fact that this community has been treated differently, and had rights and acceptance denied them.
Marriage equality is about changing attitudes as part of a wider culture of acceptance and inclusion, about saying that the members of a minority are in no way “other” or weird, wrong, degenerate or “evil.”
Would the author of the Kairos article find it difficult to understand that being told you are somehow perverted or evil, and not being able to express feelings that go to the core of your self-identity, would somehow affect your mental health, or drive you to substance abuse?
Does the author not understand that the bonds of marriage often invoke feelings of a qualitative change in a relationship that would reinforce loyalty?
Then there is the elephant in the room: by arguing that these “negative” behaviors accompany the “homosexual lifestyle,” the author is presuming that such behaviors do not plague heterosexuals.
The public should not listen to such misinformation, but instead give serious consideration to the moral significance of this kairos moment.
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trip to China provides a pertinent reminder of why Taiwanese protested so vociferously against attempts to force through the cross-strait service trade agreement in 2014 and why, since Ma’s presidential election win in 2012, they have not voted in another Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate. While the nation narrowly avoided tragedy — the treaty would have put Taiwan on the path toward the demobilization of its democracy, which Courtney Donovan Smith wrote about in the Taipei Times in “With the Sunflower movement Taiwan dodged a bullet” — Ma’s political swansong in China, which included fawning dithyrambs