An online campaign to raise funds for newspaper advertisements publicizing legislative proposals about same-sex marriage has proven more successful than organizers had hoped, and raised money faster than they expected.
The fundraising effort was launched by the “Plain Law Movement,” a blog organized by legal experts and dedicated to translating laws and rulings into plain and simple language for the general public, which might not be familiar with legal terms.
The idea is to run ads on the front pages of major newspapers on Friday, a day before Saturday when a concert in support of legalizing same-sex marriages is to be held on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei.
Photo: Wu Po-wei, Taipei Times
The Plain Law Movement blog said the fundraising drive would open on Tuesday and end today. Organizers set a threshold of NT$1.65 million (US$51,721), the cost of an ad on the front page of the Chinese-language Apple Daily .
The newspaper was chosen because it reaches an audience that is more “diverse” and not bound by political ideologies, the organizers said.
If NT$2.5 million was raised, then an ad would also be bought for the front page of the Chinese-language United Daily News, whose readership is seen as more conservative.
Within one hour of the proposal being announced online on Monday, NT$1.65 million had been donated and within a few hours, more than 3,000 people had donated NT$3.58 million.
By yesterday afternoon the blog closed its fundraising drive because its goal had been reached, although it encouraged people to contribute to another fundraising effort (www.support.equallove.tw) that was launched by five civic groups collecting money to pay for Saturday afternoon’s concert and to organize rallies in support of an amendment to Article 972 of the Civil Code to legalize same-sex marriage.
The groups — the Taiwan Tongzhi (LGBT) Hotline Association, the Taiwan LGBT Family Rights Advocacy, the Awakening Foundation, the Lobby Alliance for LGBT Human Rights and the Queermosa Awards — said that the money would be used to create videos and other publicity and to pay part-time workers helping out at the concert, as well as rallies and public talks they are organizing before the proposed amendment to the Civil Code has its second reading in the legislature.
A legislative committee meeting to review bills concerning the legalization of same-sex marriage is to be held on Dec. 26, but the proposed Civil Code amendment is not expected to have a second reading until April.
The five groups said they want to hold a series of short public talks outside rail stations and at universities in the interval.
As of yesterday afternoon, the “support equal love” campaign had received NT$7.57 million.
Additional reporting by Alison Hsiao
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