Green Party Taiwan and New Power Party (NPP) legislator at-large candidates on Wednesday joined LGBT rights groups in condemning the use of campaign banners they said were aimed at attracting votes by “selling discrimination and fear” against families with LGBT parents.
Jovi Wu (吳少喬), who raises her seven-year-old daughter with her same-sex partner, told a news conference in Taipei that the Stabilizing Force Party and some Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidates have put up banners with messages such as: “I want to have grandchildren” and “Continue the family line.”
“Our child has never been bullied in school,” but the banners’ messages of "discrimination," "bullying" and "harm" against LGBT families have hurt her daughter “like blades,” she said.
“Every child has the right to grow up safely and healthily and to not suffer bullying, to not suffer discrimination,” she said, calling for anti-discrimination legislation.
Despite pressure from conservative forces, the NPP has continued to "fearlessly" support and defend marriage equality, NPP candidate Claire Wang (王婉諭) said.
“We do not want any children or any person to suffer discrimination or bullying, or even lose their lives,” she said.
Green Party Taiwan Deputy Secretary-General Rita Jhang (張竹芩), another candidate, said the party has proposed two LGBT-related policies: Opening assisted reproductive technology to all adults, regardless of their sexual orientation or marital status; and allowing legally registered same-sex partners to adopt children together.
“There is already too much divide in Taiwan’s society,” Green Party Taiwan candidate Teng Hui-wen (鄧惠文) said.
There are many reasons — including financial and psychological — for some people not marrying or giving birth, she said.
Her party condemns other parties that would, having “nothing better to push,” use the suppression of LGBT groups as a way to get votes, she said.
There needs to be better communication and understanding between family members of different generations, she said.
Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan chief coordinator Jennifer Lu (呂欣潔) asked whether anti-LGBT groups and non-LGBT friendly candidates "know how to campaign without discriminating, without smearing minorities, without spreading false information."
“We hope…this kind of malicious campaign culture can end with our generation,” she said.
Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights secretary-general Chien Chih-chieh (簡至潔) said she hardly ever attended weddings in the past, or cried at the ones she did go to, but since same-sex marriage was legalized last year she has been moved to tears several times.
It seems that the Stabilizing Force Party and some KMT candidates “imagine they can, through these elections, pull Taiwan’s society back to that patriarchal, feudal society,” she said.
“Many observers have said we are fighting a very serious reactionary and conservative force in these elections,” she said. “This force only allows for the existence of one kind of family and one kind of woman in Taiwan.”
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai