But the plan was aborted after the Presidential Office ordered all roads in the vicinity closed for demonstrations before Double Ten Day.
“So we are back to last year’s route. We joked about it, saying it kind of symbolizes what has been achieved for the LGBT communities. The way we see it, hardly any progress has been made,” Gofyy said.
While reforms may be advancing at a glacial pace, the LGBT movement itself has seen many changes in recent years.
Bi the Way made its debut appearance at last year’s parade and this year will march under the theme “See the Bisexual.”
Quentin Kao (高旭寬), spokesperson of TG Butterfly Garden (TG蝶園), the country’s only public transgender group, said his group would not be strong enough to stand on its own today if it weren’t for support from other LGBT activists, including the Gender/Sexuality Rights Association’s Wang Ping and Josephine Ho (何春蕤), a professor at National Central University’s Center for the Study of Sexuality. (TG Butterfly Garden recently opened a telephone helpline for transgenders.)
“The benefits are mutual. [The Tongzhi Hotline Association] has like 300 lectures, discussion panels and workshops around the country each year. We can share our experiences and knowledge on transgender issues that they may not be familiar with,” Kao said.
Both Kao and Bi the Way’s Chen point out that collaborating with the gay community while maintaining their own distinct opinions and perspectives can help to enrich the LGBT movement.
“While the gay movement takes the traditional ‘oppressors versus the oppressed’ approach, we bisexuals tend to take a more playful way to relax established ideas. We are not here to oppose to anyone. We wish to show the diversity of human sexuality and desires,” Chen said.
Also See: ‘Women of a certain age’
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