The London-based LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community choir Pink Singers and the Taiwan-based group G-Major held a mini-concert in Taipei yesterday to promote an upcoming festival featuring gay choirs from around the world.
The event, co-organized by the British Office in Taipei and the British Council, was scheduled to coincide with the opening of the three-day “Hand in Hand Asian LGBT Choral Festival,” the first such festival to take place in Taiwan.
“The British government supports equality for all. Freedom from discrimination is a basic human right, is central to our values and is protected through our laws,” UK Representative to Taiwan Chris Wood said.
“In line with our values, we are proud to promote equality and human rights around the world, including the rights of minority groups that have historically not received equal treatment,” he said.
Wood’s remarks came before the two choirs staged the mini-concert, which began with a performance by the Pink Singers, comprised of male and female singers, and followed by a show given by the all-male G-Major.
The two groups then performed two numbers together, ending the show with the song Hand in Hand.
Pink Singers, which was established in 1983 and has more than 80 singers on its roster, and G-Major are set to be among the groups performing at Sunday’s concert in Taipei as part of the choral festival, whose participants are also to take part in the Taipei Pride Parade, which is scheduled to start at 1pm today.
Officials and staff from the British Office and the European Economic and Trade Office are also to join the parade to support equality for all and advocate LGBT rights.
Several events related to the LGBT community were held this week, including the largest LGBT conference in Asia, which was held on Wednesday and Thursday in Taipei.
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS