Gay rights activists yesterday announced that they would form a voting bloc to support gay-friendly candidates in the upcoming legislative by-election in Taipei City’s Da-an District (大安).
“We’ve had six gay pride parades in Taipei in the past six years and more than 18,000 people took part in last year’s event — that’s where the voters are,” chief coordinator of last year’s gay pride parade, Lee Ming-chao (李明照), told a news conference.
“In the process of mobilizing the gay and lesbian community in Taipei, we estimated that around 10 percent of voters in Da-an District are gay — including myself. We can surely become a deciding minority if we stand together.”
He predicted that the turnout for the by-election would be lower than the 60.47 percent for last year’s legislative election.
“I’ve observed that Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] voters are not as interested in the by-election because they are not happy about how the party handled [former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator] Diane Lee’s (李慶安) dual citizenship case, so the turnout could be lower,” Lee Ming-chao said.
He said his group would come up with a list of recommended candidates and mobilize gay voters to support them.
“Recommendations will be made based on whether the candidate supports the six gay-friendly policy goals we have raised, and the candidate’s past record and performance in supporting gay rights,” Lee said.
The six policy goals are: supporting minority sexuality rights, supporting an anti-discrimination bill for all minority groups, supporting freedom of sexual expression, opposing police abuse of minority groups, supporting rights for gay partners and supporting inclusion of gay partners in the welfare system.
After asking all seven registered candidates to sign the six-policy agreement, four returned with a positive response — Wen Ping-yuan (溫炳原) of the Green Party Taiwan, Chou Po-ya (周柏雅) of the Democratic Progressive Party, Chiang Nai-shin (蔣乃辛) of the KMT and the non-partisan candidate Liu Yi-chun (劉義鈞).
Of the four, Wen and Chou attended yesterday’s press conference. While Chou reiterated that he would continue to fight for gay and lesbian rights if elected, Wen panned Chiang for not doing enough for the gay community during his seven terms as Taipei City councilor.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Temperatures in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) climbed past 37°C yesterday, as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued heat alerts for 16 municipalities, warning the public of intense heat expected across Taiwan. The hottest location in Taiwan was in Sindian, where the mercury reached 37.5°C at about 2pm, according to CWA data. Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) recorded a temperature of 37.4°C at noon, Taitung County’s Jinfeng Township (金峰) at 12:50 pm logged a temperature of 37.4°C and Miaoli County’s Toufen Township (頭份) reached 36.7°C at 11:40am, the CWA said. The weather agency yesterday issued a yellow level information notice for Taipei, New
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans