Following in the wake of an anti-gay march organized by religious groups last week, this year’s Taiwan LGBT Pride 2009 takes to the streets tomorrow to celebrate the diversity of human sexuality and raise awareness on a raft of LGBT issues that activists say are being ignored by politicians.
Now in its seventh year, the Taiwan LGBT Pride has grown from a humble gathering of 500 participants in 2003 to become the largest annual LGBT parade in the Chinese-speaking world. Organizers expect more than 20,000 people to attend this year’s edition joined by representatives of more than 60 groups including the Taiwan Gender Equity Education Association (台灣性別平等教育協會), Bi the Way, the country’s first bisexual group, and GBooks (基本書坊), a gay publishing house.
One aim of this year’s event is to voice frustration and disappointment with the country’s two major political parties for ignoring gay rights.
“Politicians from pan-blue and pan-green camps always say they support the gay rights movement when elections approach, but never put their promises into action when they take office,” said J.J. Lai (賴正哲), who helped organize the parade and is the owner of Gin Gin’s Bookstore (晶晶書庫), the country’s first bookstore specializing in books, music and DVDs related to homosexual topics.
The broken promises include implementation of a basic human rights law that recognizes same-sex marriage, which was drafted during Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration but never passed, and President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) pledge, made while he was Taipei City mayor, to legalize gay marriage in the capital once the central government allowed it. As president, Ma has not done anything to improve gay rights, said Lai.
Under the slogan “Love Out Loud” (同志愛很大), parade organizers hope to encourage members of the public to love, not discriminate against, lesbian, gay, transgender, transsexual or transvestite relatives, colleagues and neighbors.
Not everyone feels that affection, though. An anti-gay march was held on Saturday of last week by members from several Christian groups including the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (台灣基督長老教會), May God’s Grace Be With You (基督教耕耘會), the Baptist Church (浸信會) and Methodist Church (衛理會).
Led by two former Presbyterian Church pastors, Chen Yu-chuan (陳宇全) and Chen Fu-chu (陳福住), the march followed a route similar to that of tomorrow’s LGBT parade, starting from Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂) and passing the 228 Memorial Park (二二八和平紀念公園). Participants held banners aloft that read, “gay parades cause calamities” (同性戀遊行招致大災難), “God blesses heterosexual marriage” (神祝福一男一女的婚姻), and “refuse wrong love and cleanse Taiwan” (拒絕錯愛潔淨台灣).
Some participants got up on the soapbox and said that though the Christian church is not against homosexuals, they should cease their “sinful” sexual behavior or else Taiwan would turn into a modern Sodom and Gomorrah.
Taiwan LGBT Pride organizers such as Lai criticized the protesters’ bigoted views on homosexuality. Gay rights activist Li Ming-chao (李明照) said the march demonstrated how Christianity persecutes those who don’t conform to its multifarious ideas, and all in the name of God’s love.
“I don’t believe in [the Christian] god, so why should I repent? My Matzu (媽祖) loves me very much,” Li said.
Elias Tseng (曾恕敏), a former pastor of the Tong-Kwang Light House Presbyterian Church (同光同志長老教會), expressed concern that Saturday’s march marked the beginning of an organized religious anti-gay movement.
RSS