Last month, over 80,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and their supporters marched in the 13th Taiwan LGBT Pride Parade (台灣同志遊行). Turnout was historic, as the parade has become the second largest LGBT event in Asia and the Middle East, after the Tel Aviv Gay Pride Parade.
A number of events were also held last month to celebrate LGBT pride, including the Taiwan International Queer Film Festival (台灣國際酷兒影展), the Hand in Hand Asian LGBT Choral Festival, which featured over 150 vocalists from around the world, and the ILGA-Asia Conference, the largest of its kind in Asia with 300 activists from over 30 countries.
In the past, most foreign participants were from neighboring countries. But this year, many hailed from the West. According to the Taiwan LGBT Pride (台灣同志遊行聯盟), organizer of the parade, over 5,000 foreign participants took part in the parade and related international events. And thanks to the foreign media’s coverage, the parade successfully boosted the global visibility of Taiwan’s LGBT community.
Photo: REUTERS
“The Taiwan LGBT Pride Parade is a famous international event. I want to be part of it to show support,” said Father Silas of the Romanian Orthodox Church during his visit to Taipei. Silas posed nude for the Orthodox Calendar this year to protest homophobia and show his support for the LGBT community.
Meanwhile, some presidential and legislative candidates promised to protect LGBT rights should they be elected.
OVERWHELMING SUPPORT
Photo: CNA
On the day of the parade, the Ministry of Justice completed the nation’s largest online vote to date on same-sex marriage, which will serve as a reference for policymaking. More than 310,000 people participated in the three-month vote, which was held between Aug. 3 and Oct. 31 on the government’s Public Policy Network Participation Platform (公共政策網路參與平台).
The poll revealed that 59 percent support legal protection for same-sex couples, 71 percent support a same-sex marriage act and 45 percent support a same-sex partnership act, where gay couples are offered certain rights enjoyed by married couples, instead of full marriage rights.
These figures clearly show that support for same-sex marriage has surged to a new high compared with a 2013 poll.
TIME TO ACT
For that poll, the ministry commissioned the Police Research Association (中華警政研究學會) to conduct a study on the feasibility of same-sex marriage legislation. The results showed that 53.7 percent of respondents agreed that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry, and 61.1 percent said that married same-sex couples should be allowed to adopt children.
In response, the association recommended that the ministry push for marriage equality legislation.
However, when the legislature commenced discussion of the draft bill for marriage equality last year, not only did the ministry ignore the association’s recommendations, it also called same-sex marriage “an ethical violation of human relations” in its report to the legislature.
With the results of this new poll showing support for marriage equality increasing from 53.7 percent to 71 percent within a few years, will the ministry continue to groundlessly criticize it while ignoring public opinion?
Some politicians and officials claim that Taiwanese are not ready for same-sex marriage. But the results of the ministry’s own polls clearly show that the majority of Taiwanese are. It’s about time our politicians faced up to this reality.
What was the population of Taiwan when the first Negritos arrived? In 500BC? The 1st century? The 18th? These questions are important, because they can contextualize the number of babies born last month, 6,523, to all the people on Taiwan, indigenous and colonial alike. That figure represents a year on year drop of 3,884 babies, prefiguring total births under 90,000 for the year. It also represents the 26th straight month of deaths exceeding births. Why isn’t this a bigger crisis? Because we don’t experience it. Instead, what we experience is a growing and more diverse population. POPULATION What is Taiwan’s actual population?
After Jurassic Park premiered in 1993, people began to ask if scientists could really bring long-lost species back from extinction, just like in the hit movie. The idea has triggered “de-extinction” debates in several countries, including Taiwan, where the focus has been on the Formosan clouded leopard (designated after 1917 as Neofelis nebulosa brachyura). National Taiwan Museum’s (NTM) Web site describes the Formosan clouded leopard as “a subspecies endemic to Taiwan…it reaches a body length of 0.6m to 1.2m and tail length of 0.7m to 0.9m and weighs between 15kg and 30kg. It is entirely covered with beautiful cloud-like spots
For the past five years, Sammy Jou (周祥敏) has climbed Kinmen’s highest peak, Taiwu Mountain (太武山) at 6am before heading to work. In the winter, it’s dark when he sets out but even at this hour, other climbers are already coming down the mountain. All of this is a big change from Jou’s childhood during the Martial Law period, when the military requisitioned the mountain for strategic purposes and most of it was off-limits. Back then, only two mountain trails were open, and they were open only during special occasions, such as for prayers to one’s ancestors during Lunar New Year.
March 23 to March 29 Kao Chang (高長) set strict rules for his descendants: women were to learn music or cooking, and the men medicine or theology. No matter what life path they chose, they were to use their skills in service of the Presbyterian Church and society. As a result, musical ability — particularly in Western instruments — was almost expected among the Kao women, and even those who married into the family often had musical training. Although the men did not typically play instruments, they played a supporting role, helping to organize music programs such as children’s orchestras, writes
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