The largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) conference in Asia opened yesterday in Taipei, with local activists eager to learn from the experiences of other participants about combating discrimination and pursuing equal rights.
The sixth ILGA-Asia Regional Conference has drawn 300 activists from more than 30 countries, and Wayne Lin, chairperson of the event’s organizer, the Taiwan Tongzhi (LGBT) Hotline Association, sees it as a chance for Taiwan to share its experiences with the world and learn how LGBT issues are dealt with in other countries.
“By learning from each other, we hope to bring our cooperation one step further and strengthen Taiwan’s LGBT activism,” Lin said at the opening of the three-day conference — being held in Taiwan for the first time — at the Chientan Overseas Youth Activity Center.
Madeleine Majorenko, head of the European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan, said the EU sees Taiwan as a front-runner in the fight for LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex) rights and was proud to support the conference.
“Through the sharing of experience and best practices, and the discussions on subjects of profound impact, together I think we will be able to strengthen the fight against LGBTI discrimination in Asia,” Majorenko said.
The EU provided 40,000 euros (US$44,131) in funding for the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association-Asia’s regional conference.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS