Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Saturday called for respect for every individual’s sexual orientation, as he met with Asian students at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana to discuss a number of issues, including the value of Taiwan’s democratic system, gay rights and the importance of increased cultural exchanges with China.
He made the remarks at a forum held by the university, addressing students from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and China on the subject of cross-strait relations.
Ma, on his first trip to the US since leaving office in May, began by saying that Taiwan-China relations could be “natural” if they are based on “shared daily experiences,” such as exchanges between students.
Photo: CNA
Praising Taiwan’s democratic system, Ma said that it is imperative that the decisions made by individuals in Taiwan be free of social interference, and he expressed his belief that society would make the right decision on the legislature’s draft bills to legalize same-sex marriage through the democratic process.
The former president told the students a story about Taiwan’s gay rights movement centering on a visit by a Chinese women’s rights advocate, who had been invited by a gay rights group.
“She initially did not have any fixed views of Taiwan, but after interacting with Taiwanese gay rights advocates, she was deeply touched by the efforts,” Ma said, adding that the Chinese woman spoke highly of Taiwan after her visit, leaving even her friends thinking she was a supporter of Taiwanese independence.
During his time as Taipei mayor, the city budgeted NT$1 million (US$31,240 at the current exchange rate) for activities in support of the gay community and made city land available for their use, Ma said, adding that government support has made Taipei Asia’s most gay-friendly city.
While his support of gay rights, based on human rights and humanitarianism, during his time in office have been questioned by his older relatives, Ma said he believed “an individual’s sexual orientation must be respected.”
Whether the legal definition of a “family” should be changed is another matter, but at the very least, people should not be discriminated against and their basic human rights should be safeguarded at all costs, he said.
Returning to the subject of cross-strait relations, Ma said exchanges such as that of the Chinese women’s rights advocate should be increased, because it would allow people on the other side of the Taiwan Strait to better understand the “value of Taiwan’s existence.”
Taiwan represents the most democratic environment in the “several-thousand-year history of the Chinese people,” he said.
“This does not mean that anything goes in Taiwan,” Ma said.
“It is just that people in Taiwan will not be hindered when making collective decisions,” he added.
Ma was scheduled to deliver the keynote speech at the university’s second Asia Leadership Forum yesterday before traveling to Chicago to attend a dinner with Taiwanese expatriates.
He is scheduled to return to Taiwan on Wednesday.
Police have detained a Taoyuan couple suspected of over the past two months colluding with human trafficking rings and employment scammers in Southeast Asia to send nearly 100 Taiwanese jobseekers to Cambodia. At a media briefing in Taipei yesterday, the Criminal Investigation Bureau presented items seized from the couple, including alleged victims’ passports, forged COVID-19 vaccination records, mobile phones, bank documents, checks and cash. The man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and his girlfriend, surnamed Tsan (詹), were taken into custody last month, after police at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport stopped four jobseekers from boarding a flight to Phnom Penh, said Dustin Lee (李泱輯),
BILINGUAL PLAN: The 17 educators were recruited under a program that seeks to empower Taiwanese, the envoy to the Philippines said The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines on Thursday hosted a send-off event for the first group of English-language teachers from the country who were recruited for a Ministry of Education-initiated program to advance bilingual education in Taiwan. The 14 teachers and three teaching assistants are part of the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which aims to help find English-language instructors for Taiwan’s public elementary and junior-high schools, the office said. Seventy-seven teachers and 11 teaching assistants from the Philippines have been hired to teach in Taiwan in the coming school year, office data showed. Among the first group is 57-year-old
TRICKED INTO MOVING: Local governments in China do not offer any help, and Taiwanese there must compete with Chinese in an unfamiliar setting, a researcher said Beijing’s incentives for Taiwanese businesspeople to invest in China are only intended to lure them across the Taiwan Strait, after which they receive no real support, an expert said on Sunday. Over the past few years, Beijing has been offering a number of incentives that “benefit Taiwanese in name, while benefiting China in reality,” a cross-strait affairs expert said on condition of anonymity. Strategies such as the “31 incentives” are intended to lure Taiwanese talent, capital and technology to help address China’s economic issues while also furthering its “united front” efforts, they said. Local governments in China do not offer much practical
‘ORDINARY PEOPLE’: A man watching Taiwanese military drills said that there would be nothing anyone could do if the situation escalates in the Taiwan Strait Many people in Taiwan look upon China’s military exercises over the past week with calm resignation, doubting that war is imminent and if anything, feeling pride in their nation’s determination to defend itself. After a visit to Taiwan last week by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, China has sent ships and aircraft across an unofficial buffer between Taiwan and China’s coast and missiles over Taipei and into waters surrounding the nation since Thursday last week. However, Rosa Chang, proudly watching her son take part in Taiwanese military exercises that included dozens of howitzers firing shells into the Taiwan Strait off
RSS