The proprietor of a Taipei bookstore selling erotic gay magazines may be faced with fines or imprisonment for selling "indecent" publications after the verdict is delivered at the first hearing at the Keelung District Court on April 19.
"We will definitely file for an appeal if I am found guilty. Should the second instance yield the same verdict, we will try to seek a Grand Justice interpretation," said Lai Jeng-jer (賴正哲) yesterday.
Lai is the proprietor of Gin Gin's, a Taipei bookstore which specializes in the genre of gay and lesbian literature.
In 2003, Keelung Customs officers confiscated hundreds of magazines that were imported by the bookstore.
The same year, Keelung District prosecutors confiscated dozens of other magazines that were legally published in Hong Kong from the bookstore.
As the proprietor of the bookstore, Lai was charged with violating Article 235 of the Criminal Code.
The code stipulates that a person who distributes, sells, publicly displays or by other means shows to another person indecent writing, drawing, or other shall be punished with imprisonment for not more than one year or imprisonment.
In addition, a fine of not more than NT$3,000 may be imposed.
Over the past two years, several homosexual advocacy groups in Taiwan have pitched in to help Lai fight the case and to widely publicize their views on freedom of expression.
"I could choose to either serve my sentence or pay the fine, should the verdict be unfavorable," Lai said.
"Honestly, the point we have been trying to make is not about [avoiding] the fine. All the legal expenses we have put in so far have already exceeded the amount anyway," Lai said.
"We simply want the public to know that Taiwan is a very open and diverse society," Lai said in an interview by telephone.
On March 15, during the second hearing of the case, the Publication Appraisal Foundation made an assessment of over a hundred magazines confiscated from the bookstore.
The foundation defined the graphics that contained nudity, erection, gay sex, as "unnatural" and "indecent."
The assessment was ordered by the court justice to help determine whether importing and displaying these magazines was an act which violated the Criminal Code.
In response to the assessment, Wang Ping (王蘋), secretary general of the Gender/Sexuality Rights Association Taiwan (台灣性別人權協會) said that when it comes to the exposure of body parts in publications and the topic of homosexuality, the foundation that conducted the assessment cannot do its job with objectivity.
"This foundation is not objective and does not take a neutral stance [on the issues]. Many of the foundation's decisions have been very controversial, especially given the fact that the recent policy of rating publications has been implemented by the Government Information Office," said Wang.
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