DJ Victor Cheng, who mixed records and led the parade on a truck with a sound system, summed up this year's Pride Parade thus: "When my friends try to compare this parade to larger events in the US, I remind them that this is how parades in the US got their start ... the turnout this year proves that the parade will continue to become stronger."
Last year, 1,000 people participated and the larger-scale event this year may indeed bode well for the Pride Parade's future in Taiwan, yet one attendee took a more jaded and perhaps more realistic view of Taiwan's state of affairs. "Society doesn't have a problem with gay people in the public sphere, but when gays enter the home, when a gay is in their family, that's where they draw the line."
True enough, unlike similar manifestations in New York, San Francisco, or Sydney, one did not catch a glimpse of parents out to support their gay children. But reaching that level of acceptance might be a long-term project, or at least an aspiration for the next Taiwan Pride Parade.
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