With US pop star Lady Gaga scheduled to perform in Greater Taichung today, members of the Kaohsiung LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) Pride Parade yesterday said they plan to hold up placards expressing the gay community’s support for Lady Gaga, in light of her gay-friendly image.
The group’s convener, Hsiao Hsing (小星), said Lady Gaga has always encouraged her fans to remain true to themselves through her own story of being bullied and thrown in a garbage can when she was younger, but never giving up on herself.
This story tells young gay people in Taiwan, who often face bullying on campus, that they must work hard and persevere, Hsiao Hsing said.
On hearing that Lady Gaga, who has spoken out several times in support of the gay community, was coming to Taiwan, Kaohsiung LGBT Pride Parade said it too had decided to show its support for Lady Gaga.
After discussions, they decided to send a member, nicknamed Chris, to register in a “creative outfit” contest organized by Mercedez-Benz in Taiwan, in the hope of meeting Lady Gaga.
Chris covered himself with black feathers, and a cage, to symbolize the discrimination and repression that gay people suffer, but that rather than be cowed by such attitudes, gay people are determined to fight for their rights.
Chris won first place in the contest with over 10,000 votes on the Internet.
In addition to Chris, about 10 other members of the group have purchased tickets to Lady Gaga’s concert, and will be holding up signs that read “born this way, born this gay” and “Gaga loves gays, gays love Gaga” to show their support.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
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