Thousands of people participated in a "Rainbow Power" parade in Taipei yesterday to show their support for the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual (GLBT) communities.
The parade took a carnival-like mood with marchers waving rainbow flags, colorful balloons and signs. Some were dressed in flamboyant period costumes while others only wore swim trunks despite the cool weather.
Organized by members of Taiwan GLBT communities and supported by dozens of other groups, yesterday's parade was the fifth annual GLBT parade in the country.
PHOTO: AFP
"Showing off the power of the GLBT communities and their supporters is the theme of this year's parade," an event spokesman wished to be known as Goffy (
In addition to participants mobilized by various groups, Goffy estimated a 70 percent volunteer participation, "that's the power -- and with the power, we'd like to demand equal rights for the GLBT communities," he said.
A participant who wished to be known as James said gays still don't have equal rights.
"For example, gay partners cannot become legally married and thus are excluded from all the legal rights of a married couple," he said.
"It's not fair that we've done all the duties required [of citizens] but do not enjoy all the rights," A-wei (
The Cabinet in 2003 drafted a controversial bill to legalize same-sex marriages and recognize the rights of homosexual couples to adopt children, the first country in Asia to do so.
However, the law has yet to be passed and some gay groups have criticized the bill as a ploy to woo gay voters.
A-wei is also a member of the Tong-Kwang Light House Presbyterian Church, a church founded 11 years ago by members of the GLBT communities.
"God loves people -- that means all people," whether he or she is gay or straight, he said, explaining the founding principle of the church.
Before the parade departed from Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
The parade reached its climax when all the demonstrators, divided into six groups, held up colored papers to compose the six-colored rainbow flag on Zhongxiao E Rd.
Onlookers packed the sidewalks and some waved small rainbow flags at participants as they marched by.
Pop singer A-mei (
The singer, who performed some of her hit songs to the cheering crowd, endeared herself to the gay audience when she released a music video depicting a gay wedding scene several years ago.
Organizers estimated that 15,000 people participated in the parade, while a police source estimated around 10,000.
Additional reporting by AFP
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching