A rally last year run to oppose the legalization of same-sex marriage may have violated government regulations, the Taiwan International Association for Gay Rights said yesterday.
The association’s spokesman Chen Chih-ming (陳志明) told a press conference in Taipei that the coalition was not registered at the Ministry of the Interior, and that funding raised by the group had gone into church coffers was also suspicious.
Chen said the Charity Donations Act (公益勸募條例) states that donations made to religious groups cannot be used for nonreligious activities, adding that the Nov. 30 rally held by the Coalition for the Happiness of Our Next Generation had been designated a “civilian movement.”
“From the accounts I received of the donations, the Taiwan Lutheran Church raised NT$20 million [US$662,799] from the event, but it was not clear where the money went,” Chen said, adding that he suspected the coalition was manipulating the anti-gay marriage subject to raise funds for the church.
The government should launch an investigation into the matter, Chen said.
Also present at the press conference was Ministry of Health and Welfare official Chiang Kuo-jen (江國仁). Chiang said he would look into the funds raised by the event organizers.
The ministry’s religion division chief Huang Shu-kuan (黃淑冠) said it was difficult to say how the event should have been classified, adding that the division would look into the matter.
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
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
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