The Taiwan Equality Campaign yesterday marked the first anniversary of the implementation of a special law for same-sex marriage by outlining its four major goals for the next three years.
There is still much work to be done to achieve equal rights, as discrimination and misunderstanding involving the LGBT+ community has not been eradicated, the group said.
Although a poll it released on May 15 about attitudes toward LGBT+ and same-sex marriage showed generally positive results, it still found that 28.4 percent of respondents aged 18 and older believe the passage of the Act for Implementation of Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 748 (司法院釋字第七四八號解釋施行法) had a negative impact on society, it said.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Now an independently registered organization, the Taiwan Equality Campaign was preceded by the Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan — a collection of five groups: the Taiwan Tongzhi (LGBTQ+) Hotline Association, the Taiwan LGBT Family Rights Advocacy, the Awakening Foundation, the Lobby Alliance for LGBT Human Rights and GagaOOLala.
The four main goals the campaign has set span the legal, political, educational and international arenas.
One objective is to push for legislation to extend the legal rights of LGBT+ people when it comes to adoption, the use of assisted reproductive technologies and transnational same-sex marriage.
The act now only gives same-sex couples the right to adopt the biological child or children of their spouse, while transnational marriages are only allowed when both parties come from a nation where same-sex marriage is legal.
The Taiwan Equality Campaign said it would also work with other gender equality advocacy groups and human rights experts to draft an “equality act” to protect against LGBT+ discrimination outside a workplace or school, something the laws currently do not do
It hopes to expand its exchanges with LGBT+-friendly lawmakers and their aides, form networks of local city councilors who are supportive of gender equality, and host a training program to foster LGBT+ participation in politics, it said.
To enhance public understanding of LGBT+ people, the group said it would continue to share information on LGBT+issues through social media platforms, conduct street surveys and other research, and host workshops and forums aimed at facilitating workplace equality.
It plans to share Taiwan’s experiences with other LGBT+ groups in Asia, it said, adding that next year it aims to forge an alliance for marriage equality in Asia and hold an international conference.
The campaign also announced the digital release of T-POP: No Fear In Love (踢趴噗：勇敢的愛), a compilation album created in collaboration with the Red Hot Organization.
The album features works by singers 9m88, Enno Cheng (鄭宜農), Zooey Wonder (黃玠瑋), Leaf Yeh (葉穎) and Crowd Lu (盧廣仲), including a remix of 9m88’s If I Could (如果可以) by Grammy-nominated producer starRo and the band Xiu Xiu’s remix of Cheng’s Jade (玉仔的心).
The group also launched a fundraising effort that went live yesterday. A limited number of signed copies of the album are being offered to donors who commit to contributing NT$1,527 per month — an amount signifying the time the same-sex marriage law passed its third reading at the Legislative Yuan on May 17 last year.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS