Tomorrow is going to be a big gay day for the island as homosexuals, bisexuals, transgenders and their supporters take to Taipei’s streets for the Fourth Taiwan Pride Festival to celebrate, campaign, raise awareness on a raft of LGBT issues, and, of course, have some fun.
The colorful procession will set off from Songshan Tobacco Factory, Taipei, (台北松山菸廠), and proceed along Zhongxiao East Road finishing at Huashan Cultural Park (華山文化園區). Dancing, music, performances, revelry and outlandish costumes are a staple of Taiwan’s Pride celebrations, but this year’s event has irked Christian, particularly Catholic, groups and several city councilors who have complained that Taipei City Government funding will be used for the performance of the public gay and lesbian wedding ceremonies scheduled to take place at Huashan Cultural Park as part of the event. The Catholic archbishop of Taipei Cheng Tsai-fa (鄭再發) even went so far as to say that homosexuality is against morality and that the same-sex unions seriously twist the meaning of marriage and can lead to the destruction of family life. The Chu Tai-shen (朱台深), the director-general of Taipei Christian Church Association (台北市基督教教會聯合會), said that granting gay citizens the right to marry and establish a family would make the city into a modern Sodom and Gomorrah.
The purpose of this ceremony is to raise awareness of and advocate LGBT rights such as the long-stalled legal recognition of same-sex domestic partnerships, the extension of adoption rights to include same-sex couples and the provision of welfare benefits for elderly LGBTs.
PHOTO: SONG ZHI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The objections regarding government funding are ill-founded, as the parade and marriage ceremonies are privately funded. The Taipei LGBT Festival (台北同玩節), which started on Sept. 17 and will continue on after the Taiwan Pride Festival, until Oct. 15, on the other hand, is partially funded by the city government.
Originally part of the LGBT Festival, organizers of the Taiwan Pride Festival ceased accepting sponsorship from the Taipei City Department of Civil Affairs (台北市政府民政局) in its second year because of the conditions the department attached to funding.
Taipei has hosted gay carnivals since 1999, but “the first gay parade [in 2003] kind of scared off officials. The sight of the scantily clad Waterboys [a group of homosexual beach enthusiasts] in swimming trunks strutting in the procession was alone enough to illicit complaints and stir controversy. It’s a good thing to distance the event from the public sector… . We have to use our own power to make ourselves heard,” said Wang Ping (王蘋), secretary-general of the Gender/Sexuality Rights Association in Taiwan (GSRAT, 台灣性別人權協會), the organizer of the Pride Parade.
PHOTOS: WANG YI-SONG AND ZHAO SHI-HSUEN, TAIPEI TIMES
Ashley Wu (巫緒樑), director of public affairs at the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association (TTHA, 同志諮詢熱線) and the executive secretary of Taiwan Pride Community (台灣同志遊行聯盟), the parade organizers, said accepting rules set by the city government would mean adhering to bureaucratic conservatism.
“Take the poster for this year’s LGBT festival for example. It is the first time that real gay people are featured on the poster and it really bothers the Department of Civil Affairs. Originally, we had another version showing them hugging each other — like one big family, but the officials simply said ‘no,’” said Wu, one of the three homosexuals pictured on the promotional poster.
The government’s objections have been echoed by some religious groups.
“After the protest against the first LGBT festival in 2000, they [religious groups] kind of mellowed out over the issue as they saw the events as inoffensive. But this year’s gay wedding has hit a raw nerve because it challenges ideas about family and marriage,” said Wang Ping (王蘋), GSRAT secretary-general.
For many gay rights advocates, such opposition is seen as an opportunity to foster dialogue with other disenfranchised groups. “Catholic and Christian nations like Spain, Belgium and Canada have already recognized same-sex marriage. We can also accomplish it as long as we start communicating step by step with others,” Wang said.
The Taipei LGBT Festival this year, its seventh, has already held public forums and teachers’ study groups on gay-related issues and a rainbow flag-raising ceremony at Taipei City Hall that took place on Sept. 17 (the first of its kind in an Asian country). An art exhibition at the Huashan Cultural Park will run through to Oct. 5.
The Taiwan Pride Festival Parade has been growing bigger each year, and organizers expect over 6,000 people to attend tomorrow’s parade. It is hard to imagine that previous events were arranged on meager budgets of less than NT$300,000. The financial crunch has made this year’s Pride Festival more of an achievement as the organizers have expanded the event to include a book fair, an art market held in collaboration with Campo Life Art Carnival (CAMPO, 生活藝術狂歡節) and a two-stage musical festival.
The planned same-sex wedding ceremonies were organized in response to the newly amended Domestic Violence Prevention Law (家暴法), which includes homosexuals in the category of family members, and to campaign for the legalization of same-sex unions.
Yet the fear of media exposure has limited applications. Only four lesbian couples have so far come forward to be ‘married’ with the blessing of family members, friends and thousands of marchers.
While the Pride Parade has grown stronger each year with the participation of gay and gay-friendly groups, its sister event the LGBT Festival faces an uncertain future as the city government has reduced its budget from NT$1 million to this year’s NT$620,000. To gay advocates like Wang, government-sponsored activities could be done without.
“Money is not the issue here. What matters is whether or not the city government is willing to play an active role in fostering a society that is free of discrimination and recognizes the basic human rights of minority groups,” Wang said.
For your information:
Tomorrow is a big day for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders around the island as the 4th Taiwan Tongzhi Pride Parade will see thousands of participants attired in carnival costumes march through Taipei’s downtown. All activities will be held at the Huashan Cultural Park except for the parade and after parties.
Those interested in joining the Taiwan Pride Parade 2006 can meet at the Taipei Songshan Tobacco Factory (台北松山菸廠) at 1pm and the procession will start at 2pm. The estimated time for arriving at Huashan Cultural Park is 4pm.
* The collective gay wedding ceremony will begin at 4pm.
* Rainbow market and book fair will be held from 12pm to 8pm.
* Rainbow Music Festival and Party from 5pm to 10pm.
NT$300 for advanced tickets and NT$400 at the door.
* Taiwan Pride Official After Gay Party from 11pm to 7am at AXD.
* Taiwan Pride Official After Les Party from 11pm to 5am at Champagne3.
* Advanced tickets for the after parties cost NT$600 and NT$800 at the door.
* Discounted tickets of NT$800 for both Rainbow Music Festival and after party are also available.
For more information about the LGBT Civil Rights Movement,
visit www.lgbttaipei.net. For the Taiwan Pride Parade, visit twpride.net.
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50