Two months of Gay and Lesbian Awakening Day (GLAD) events drew to a close yesterday with gay and lesbian college groups presenting the results of GLAD 2004 while criticizing government repression of sexual identity expression.
The nine-year-old event was organized by 13 college groups this month and last, and included events such as a film festival and a literary and artistic expression competition. The event has traditionally focused on spreading awareness and encouraging dialogue about gay issues.
In light of government actions against the gay community, however, such as the confiscation of magazines from gay bookstore Gin Gin's last year and the recent lawsuit against controversial feminist Josephine Ho (何春蕤) for placing a bestiality link on her website, this year's GLAD organizers decided to speak out.
The groups yesterday advocated placing nude male photos in male restrooms as a symbolic attack on Article 235 of the Criminal Code (中華民國刑法), which states that anyone found distributing indecent audio, visual or written materials faces prosecution.
"Article 235 has been used recently to repress personal expression, so we advocated putting nude photos in public restrooms to expose the ridiculousness of the government's claims," said Kao Yi-chao (高穎超), an event organizer and graduate student in National Taiwan University's sociology department.
"It seems very natural to see nudity in commonplace situations; for example, in bathrooms or pools. Why is it, then, that seeing the real thing is OK, but seeing material reproductions is not?" Kao said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
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