National Taiwan University (NTU) authorities yesterday came under fire from student organizations promoting gender and sexuality issues for stopping them from distributing condoms during the school’s freshman orientation.
Chen Po-wu (陳柏屼), the student who launched the campaign, accused the school of backtracking on a promise to allow them to distribute condoms and brochures to orientation participants and discuss safe sex with the freshmen.
“The Gender Equality Education Act (性別平等教育法) specifically stipulates that schools should provide a gender friendly environment, but NTU’s gender equality panel discusses nothing but sexual harassment issues with freshmen,” Chen said in a press release.
“Since the school does not want to provide [information about sex], student organizations have no choice but to take the initiative to talk about the diversity of gender and safe sex. After all, college students are adults. Shouldn’t they learn how to protect themselves while enjoying sex?” Chen said.
Video footage aired by news channels showed NTU campus security forcibly removing dozens of student activists as they threw condoms during the orientation ceremony while other activists dressed as maids or female police officers paraded holding a giant rainbow flag, chanting “It is not a crime to enjoy orgasm. Gender is diverse.”
The organizations issued brochures with a condom attached during freshman orientations at Taiwan Normal University on Monday morning, at National Tsing Hua University on Monday afternoon and at National Chengchi University on Wednesday morning, after which the organizations or school authorities held sessions to discuss gender issues and safe sex with freshmen.
In response, NTU secretary-general Sebastian Liao (廖咸浩) said allowing the organizations to promote their campaign during the orientation would be unfair to other student clubs.
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