Among the 10 referendums that were held alongside the Nov. 24 nine-in-one elections were five connected with LGBT issues. The three “pro-family” proposals gained considerably more votes than the two pro-LGBT ones.
The results mark a setback for equal marriage rights and gender-equality education, but in the words of Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙): “The work of the revolution is not yet done. Let all our comrades strive on.”
Taiwanese still have much work to do.
The African-American civil rights movement came to the fore in the 1950s, but not until 1968 did it achieve the abolition of the US’ century-old racial segregation laws.
The women’s equality movement in the US started in the second half of the 19th century, but not until 1920 did the US Congress confirm women’s right to vote.
Even today, the specters of racial discrimination and male chauvinism linger. It is a history of shifting cultural paradigms.
The gender equality movement in Taiwan could be said to have started 18 years ago after the death of “rose boy” Yeh Yung-chih (葉永鋕) or 20 years ago when the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association was founded.
In historical terms, Taiwan’s gender equality movement has only just begun.
That Taiwanese voters were able to express their opinions about marriage rights and gender-equality education via direct democracy in the form of referendums, and that LGBT-friendly proposals gained the support of more than 3 million voters — despite the two sides having very unequal resources — make this event a remarkable milestone.
As for the local government election results, they show that the issue of unification versus independence within the traditional pan-blue versus pan-green camp framework is cooling down as people start to prioritize policy issues related to the economy and livelihood.
The retreat of blue and green ideologies heralds the next round of civil issues.
A cultural war — if that is not too dramatic a term — is looming between suspicion and conservatism on the one hand, and human rights and progress on the other.
The social confrontation that has just taken place between supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage, and the big differences in the numbers of votes cast either way, show that there are huge gaps on this issue between generations, and between urban and rural.
With the population tending toward conservationism, gender-equality supporters need to break out of their comfort zone.
This can only be done by fighting rumors with facts through social education, so they must keep up their efforts to communicate and persuade.
The democracy movement also began in an atmosphere of ignorance. It had to dispel layer upon layer of suspicion and obstacles so that it could march step-by-step toward today’s impressive achievements.
Social workers often say that social work aims to eliminate itself. When it no longer exists, it will mean that society is nearing a state of harmony.
The work of advocating gender equality also aims to eliminate itself by achieving an ideal state of real gender equality.
Let us thank the 3 million people who supported the LGBT-friendly referendum proposals and the nearly 7 million who voted either way.
These things will long be remembered.
“Faith” and “perseverance” are not just words.
Love and tolerance are what make us great.
Teng Ming-hung is a lecturer at Yilan Community University.
Translated by Julian Clegg
In a stark reminder of China’s persistent territorial overreach, Pema Wangjom Thongdok, a woman from Arunachal Pradesh holding an Indian passport, was detained for 18 hours at Shanghai Pudong Airport on Nov. 24 last year. Chinese immigration officials allegedly informed her that her passport was “invalid” because she was “Chinese,” refusing to recognize her Indian citizenship and claiming Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet. Officials had insisted that Thongdok, an Indian-origin UK resident traveling for a conference, was not Indian despite her valid documents. India lodged a strong diplomatic protest, summoning the Chinese charge d’affaires in Delhi and demanding
In the past 72 hours, US Senators Roger Wicker, Dan Sullivan and Ruben Gallego took to social media to publicly rebuke the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) over the defense budget. I understand that Taiwan’s head is on the chopping block, and the urgency of its security situation cannot be overstated. However, the comments from Wicker, Sullivan and Gallego suggest they have fallen victim to a sophisticated disinformation campaign orchestrated by an administration in Taipei that treats national security as a partisan weapon. The narrative fed to our allies claims the opposition is slashing the defense budget to kowtow to the Chinese
In a Taipei Times editorial published almost three years ago (“Macron goes off-piste,” April 13, 2023, page 8), French President Emmanuel Macron was criticized for comments he made immediately after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing. Macron had spoken of the need for his country to find a path on Chinese foreign policy no longer aligned with that of the US, saying that continuing to follow the US agenda would sacrifice the EU’s strategic autonomy. At the time, Macron was criticized for gifting Xi a PR coup, and the editorial said that he had been “persuaded to run
The wrap-up press event on Feb. 1 for the new local period suspense film Murder of the Century (世紀血案), adapted from the true story of the Lin family murders (林家血案) in 1980, has sparked waves of condemnation in the past week, as well as a boycott. The film is based on the shocking, unsolved murders that occurred at then-imprisoned provincial councilor and democracy advocate Lin I-hsiung’s (林義雄) residence on Feb. 28, 1980, while Lin was detained for his participation in the Formosa Incident, in which police and protesters clashed during a pro-democracy rally in Kaohsiung organized by Formosa Magazine on Dec.
RSS