Taipei yesterday played host to one of the few Pride marches around the world on Sunday as the nation’s LGTB+ community and their supporters gathered at Liberty Square for a small march.
An afternoon shower delayed the start of the “Taiwan Pride Parade for the World” for an hour, but music helped maintain the enthusiasm of the estimated 1,200 participants as they waited.
When the rain halted, participants marched from in front of the Liberty Square archway to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and back.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
Many of those attending held placards with the names of major cities around the world that have been unable to celebrate Pride Month this month because of the COVID-19 pandemic, or the values they were marching for.
“I’m marching for New York, because that’s the origin of the Stonewall uprising. I attended the parade there last year, but this year it has been canceled,” Chi Chia-wei (祁家威), a pioneering gay rights advocate in Taiwan, told the Central News Agency.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first pride marches in the US, which were held a year after the Stonewall uprising in New York City.
“I’m here to march for France,” Cookie, a French drag queen who has been living in Taiwan for the past six years told Agence France-Presse. “Since the rest of the world cannot march or even go out, we have the opportunity to march for the rest of the world.”
Taiwan’s annual Pride march is held in late October, but many in the nation’s LGTB+ community felt it was important do something this month when so many others around the world could not.
“Knowing that over 475 pride events around the world have been canceled broke my heart,” said event organizer Darien Chen (陳宏昌), a consultant at the Taiwan Gay Sports and Taiwan Gay Development Movement Association. “I feel it is an honor and a responsibility for Taiwan to be commemorating this very important occasion.”
Other participants said the event was a testament both to Taiwan’s ability to contain the pandemic and its commitment to rights for people of all sexual orientations.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
RSS