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.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
PEAK MONTHS: Data showed that on average 25 to 27 typhoons formed in the Pacific and South China seas annually, with about four forming per month in July and October One of three tropical depressions in the Pacific strengthened into a typhoon yesterday afternoon, while two others are expected to become typhoons by today, Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecaster Lee Ming-hsiang (李名翔) said yesterday. The outer circulation of Tropical Depression No. 20, now Typhoon Mitag, has brought light rain to Hualien, Taitung and areas in the south, Lee said, adding that as of 2pm yesterday, Mitag was moving west-northwest at 16kph, but is not expected to directly affect Taiwan. It was possible that Tropical Depression No. 21 would become a typhoon as soon as last night, he said. It was moving in a
RSS