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Gay activists slam police, media

Two young lovers hug each other and dance in a Taipei gay bar. Social and family pressures, along with police intolerance and biased media attention, have forced Taiwan's homosexuals into an isolated underworld. PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES

Bruce Chen (陳耀民) was walking along Taipei's Changte Street (常德街) as he usually did. He had just celebrated his 28th birthday, and felt like meeting his old friends after midnight. Changte Street, which sits between National Taiwan University Hospital and the 228 Memorial Park -- formerly called Taipei New Park -- is what Bruce and his friends called Hanover Street. It is also an alternative meeting place for gay men after the park closes at midnight.

But on that night, July 27, 1997, Bruce said he sensed some strange aura in the streets.

He said he soon found himself facing a police officer.

"Why are you hanging out here this late? Where is your ID?" the officer asked.

"What do you mean?" he replied to the policemen. "I have a right to walk on this street."

"You are not allowed to be here at this hour. Go home!" the policemen told him. "If we see you here again, we will inform your parents and ask them to take you back," the officer added.

Three days later, after Chen had written about his experience on the opinion page of a local newspaper -- he had seen it as a violation of human rights -- police cracked down on gay men who showed up in the area.

40 young men were taken into custody, and some were reportedly forced to be photographed.

The occasion has become known as the "Changte Street Incident," and gay rights activists describe it as the prelude to the so-called "AG incident" in 1998 that saw the wrongful arrest of gay customers at Taipei's AG Fitness Club.

A Taipei district court ruling on Thursday found two defendants innocent of charges of participating in obscene acts and providing sex services to gay customers at the gym.

Both cases, say activists, show something of the constant harassment gay men face under what police call the "tightening of neighborhood security."

"Next time we'll call the media to take your picture," were constantly used threats by police, according to Chen.

Chen, who is an English teacher at a local college and a gay rights activist, said although the police officers concerned may have been aware their actions were without legal basis, they often play on fears by some gay men that their identities could be made public.

Before the AG arrests in 1998, police had already begun putting intense pressure on the gym over its status as a gay meeting place.

"They came and checked us three times a week. Sometimes drunken officers hurled insults at customers and broke furniture and equipment," said A-cheng (阿誠), a defendant at the AG trial who had been a body-building trainer at the gym.

Reasons other than discrimination, however, have been suggested for the harassment.

One source said the newly opened gym had not set up channels to pay police "protection." The source said such fees average between NT$30,000 and NT$50,000 per month.

Others said the club attracted so many gay customers that it raised hostility among nearby shop owners, who reported it to the police.

Nevertheless, activists said that biased media presented only the police side of the story in reporting the AG case.

Most of the TV coverage described the main defendant, A-cheng, as a gay "pimp." Cable networks showcased him as "the owner of a gay sex venue."

"The media found me guilty from the very beginning, without any verification or balance," said A-cheng. He said his statements made to TV reporters were misrepresented and used against him.

"My own accusations that the police violated human rights were entirely omitted," he said.

While Taiwan's journalists have made progress in terms of advocating the protection of political human rights, they are still very ignorant about social human rights, according to Ho Jung-hsing (何榮幸), a director of the Association of Taiwan Journalists (台灣記者協會).

He said reporting on social issues requires sensitivity and professional knowledge, but that most social reporters lack such characteristics. Most media outlets have never provided the required education to their staff, he said.

In coverage like that of the AG incident, he said, the media was unable to voice the concerns of disadvantaged groups, resulting in bias towards the police.

A-cheng was victimized by a "chain of non-professionalism as a result," he said.

"All my relatives, friends and neighbors said I was engaging in sex deals and they all stopped communicating with me," he said. "My social life collapsed and I ended up seeing psychiatrists frequently," he said.

A-cheng not only lost his hair through anxiety brought on by the case, but also his job.

Business at the AG Fitness Club dropped drastically after the incident, and A-cheng had to quit his job as a training coach, which left him short of income for a whole year.

"Now the court is giving me belated justice, but for the one year of injustice that I have suffered at the hands of society and the media, who should I seek redress from?" he asked.
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