More than 30 homosexual and transgender activists demonstrated early yesterday morning outside the Keelung District Court in support of Gin Gin bookstore owner Lai Jeng-jer (
"No guilt in nudity! The male body is beautiful!" said some of the protesters' banners.
Lai was appearing in court for allegedly selling pornographic material at his store, which deals in homosexual and transgender materials.
PHOTO: YANG PEI-HUA, TAIPEI TIMES
The demonstration was spearheaded by the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline and performed skits in support of Lai.
At one point, a man and a woman in flesh-colored body suits stood in identical poses while a mock judge wearing "patriarchal/heterosexual spectacles" studied them to decide who was the more "perverse."
The protest remained peaceful for the most part, though a minor dispute occurred when the judges decided to close the hearing to the public.
"The court's official reason for a private hearing was to shield potentially offensive evidence from the public eye," Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline spokesman Ashley Wu (
Besides workers from the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline, the protesters consisted of the Gin Gin bookstore's customers, members of the Gender/Sexuality Rights Association, a male homosexual student organization at National Taiwan University, and the sexuality research center at National Central University.
The homosexual community has rallied around Lai after more than 500 copies of four magazines were seized by police last August.
"We're optimistic," Lai said after his court appearance. "We have faith that Taiwan's justice system will give us homosexuals our due."
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS