A Golden Bell Award winner has drawn ire for saying after the award ceremony that gay people will cause the destruction of humankind because of their “inability to procreate.”
After winning Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film on Saturday evening, Christian actor Li Tien-chu (李天柱) led the audience in prayer rather than giving an acceptance speech.
In an interview following the awards, Li said that he does not support homosexual relationships, adding that homosexuality will be the “destruction of humankind.”
Social Democratic Party spokesman Miao Bo-ya (苗博雅) criticized Li on Facebook, saying: “There are many types of relationships in which couples cannot reproduce, where is the logic in singling out homosexuals?”
“The cause of population decline is not homosexuality, it is a declining birthrate among heterosexual couples,” Miao wrote.
Miao said that if Li is truly concerned about the birthrate, he should petition the government to improve social services supporting new families, adding that this might allow young people to consider having children and give them the funds to raise children.
“Maybe I should congratulate Li on his win, but this is a tax-supported award, and the use of the public’s attention at this time to discriminate against others is something I, as a public servant, must condemn,” Miao said.
“Homosexual relationships have existed since early Greek civilization. If homosexuality causes the destruction of humankind, then what species are you?” exiled Chinese democracy activist Wang Dan (王丹) said on Facebook.
Wang said that if such comments were made at the Academy Awards in the US, the speaker would be booed off the stage, but when similar comments are made in Taiwan nobody protests.
“I guess this is evidence that there is still much room for progress in becoming a civilized society,” Wang said.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift