Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vice presidential candidate Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), a Catholic, yesterday said that he respects the right of everyone — including homosexuals — to pursue happiness.
“The Lord loves everyone; so he loves homosexuals,” Chen said.
“Pope Francis said: ‘If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?’” Chen said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Therefore I also believe that gays have the right to pursue happiness and we should respect that right,” he said.
However, Chen said that since same-sex relations involves a change to society, the issue of marriage “needs deeper discussion before a decision is made.”
Chen spoke following his first attendance at a DPP weekly Central Standing Committee meeting.
Chen said an accusation by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) that he was involved in plagiarism was negative campaigning, but added that he did not expect it to start so soon.
A day after DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) announced Chen as her running mate on Monday, KMT legislators Alicia Wang (王育敏), Alex Tsai (蔡正元) and former KMT legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) made the accusation of plagiarizm in a press conference at the KMT caucus office, saying that Chen Chien-jen and National Taiwan University (NTU) Hospital physician Chen Kuan-yu (陳冠宇) and NTU president Yang Pan-chyr (楊泮池), co-authored a paper in 2007 and submitted it to the international medical periodical Cancer, but was returned because there was plagiarism involved.
Chen denied the accusation, saying that it was only a problem involving quotation, not plagiarism, adding that after a revision, the paper was resubmitted and was published.
‘ANGRY’: Forgetting the humiliations and sacrifices of ‘the people of the Republic of China’ experienced disqualified Lai from being president, Ma Ying-jeou said Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday criticized President William Lai (賴清德) over what he called “phrasing that downplayed Japan’s atrocities” against China during World War II. Ma made the remarks in a post on Facebook on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Ma said he was “angry and disappointed” that Lai described the anniversary as the end of World War II instead of a “victory in the war of resistance” — a reference to the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). The eight-year war was a part of World War II, in which Japan and the other Axis
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday announced a ban on all current and former government officials from traveling to China to attend a military parade on Sept. 3, which Beijing is to hold to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War. "This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the Republic of China’s victory in the War of Resistance [Against Japan]," MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a regular news briefing in Taipei. To prevent Beijing from using the Sept. 3 military parade and related events for "united
‘OFFSHORE OPERATIONS’: Also in Dallas, Texas, the Ministry of Economic Affairs inaugurated its third Taiwan Trade and Investment Center to foster closer cooperation The 2025 Taiwan Expo USA opened on Thursday in Dallas, Texas, featuring 150 Taiwanese companies showcasing their latest technologies in the fields of drones, smart manufacturing and healthcare. The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the event’s organizer, said the exhibitors this year include Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (Foxconn), the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer; AUO; PC brand Asustek Computer; and drone maker Thunder Tiger. In his opening speech, TAITRA chairman James Huang (黃志芳) said he expected Texas to become a world-class center for innovation and manufacturing as US technology companies from Silicon Valley and Taiwanese manufacturers form an industrial cluster
A 20-year-old man yesterday evening was electrocuted and fell to his death after he climbed a seven-story-high electricity tower to photograph the sunset, causing a wildfire on Datong Mountain (大同山) in New Taipei City’s Shulin District (樹林), the Taoyuan Police Department said today. The man, surnamed Hsieh (謝), was accompanied on an evening walk by a 20-year-old woman surnamed Shang (尚) who remained on the ground and witnessed the incident, capturing a final photograph of her friend sitting atop the tower before his death, an initial investigation showed. Shang then sought higher ground to call for help, police said. The New Taipei
RSS