Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) yesterday deleted a Facebook post voicing support for the gay community that he posted the night before the annual lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) pride parade in Taipei on Saturday. The move has enraged the LGBT community, with many calling the deletion worse than not taking a stance from the outset.
The parade on Saturday attracted more than 65,000 people to the streets of the city, and many politicians showed their support for gay rights and same-sex marriages on the social network.
Both Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and former DPP chairperson Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) posted pro-gay rights messages on Facebook. Tsai displayed a picture of a rainbow flag, while Su called on society to respect differences and said that respect is more than paying lip service, but should entail equal rights for gay couples in terms of the law.
What surprised the online community most was Lien breaking his silence the night before the parade, as various interested groups’ multiple attempts to solicit an affirmation from him about his position on the same-sex marriage bill had failed.
In the original post late on Friday night, Lien said that Taipei, as a global city, should not only adopt international standards on infrastructure and services, “but also follow the global trend in ideas.”
“I hope the central government will place the relevant bills on the legislative agenda for deliberation soon in order to guarantee the rights of our gay friends,” he wrote.
However, the post could not be found yesterday. Taiwan International Association for Gay Rights spokesman Chen Chih-ming (陳志明) was arguably the first one to call attention to the deletion yesterday.
“I can only say that I’m deeply disappointed with Lien,” Chen wrote on Facebook. “First I found the date of the post was changed to Oct. 17, then it completely disappeared.”
Chen added that he called Lien’s spokesperson, Chien Chen-yu (錢震宇), the day after Lien’s supportive message went public, and asked him whether that meant Lien backed passage of the same-sex marriage bill.
“Chien told me he could not answer the question, but had to refer it to his colleagues on the policy team,” Chen said. “I wondered why the question was not referred to Lien himself.”
“Not surprisingly, as of [yesterday], neither the policy team nor the campaign office has given any response [to my question],” he said.
“It might not have seemed so unacceptable if Lien had remained silent” from the outset, Chen said.
Lien’s campaign office confirmed that the post was deliberately retracted.
“The discussion below the post got overheated, with people against same-sex marriages leaving irrational comments. We have temporarily taken down the post to avoid further radicalization of the debate and ad hominem attacks,” Chien said.
When asked whether “temporarily” means the post would be reinstated, Chien said the office “does not exclude the possibility of opening a discussion on the issue some other time.”
Chien hedged on the question of whether Lien’s earlier post attested his positive attitude toward the same-sex marriage bill.
“Lien’s position has not altered from what he had said before on this issue. He is supportive of gay rights-related bills being proposed in the legislature, but the same-sex marriage bill, the main battlefield of which is the Legislative Yuan, is one that requires more communication,” Chien told the Taipei Times.
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