The first annual gay pride parade since the nation legalized same-sex marriage is to be held in Taipei on Oct. 26, the organizer said on Thursday.
This year, the route of the parade is to be reversed, starting at the Taipei City Hall plaza and ending in front of the Presidential Office Building on Ketagalan Boulevard, the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association said.
The change has been made to show appreciation for the city government’s strong support for the gay rights movement and for same-sex marriage, after the legislation was signed into law by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on May 24, association public relations officer Li Cheng-han (李政翰) said.
A “Rainbow Market” is to be set up at the starting point of the parade, with about 100 stands selling rainbow-themed merchandise, the association said.
When the parade arrives on Ketagalan Boulevard, a “rainbow ambassador” is to address the crowd, Li said.
The association has yet to disclose the name of the speaker.
The “Together, Make Taiwan Better” event is set to be a landmark parade, as it is to be the first since Taiwan became the first nation in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage.
Alongside the parade, a series of other activities, including lectures, exhibitions and discussion forums, are to be held in Taipei next month as part of the association’s Pride Month event.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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