Taipei is marking Pride Month this month with a series of activities, starting with “rainbow” bus tours set to begin tomorrow and finishing with a weekend of light shows outside Taipei City Hall starting on Oct. 28, the Taipei City Government said on Wednesday.
Officials made the announcement at a news conference held atop a “rainbow road” that has been painted on a stretch of pavement in the plaza in front of Taipei City Hall, similar to the Rainbow Sixthat adorns the crosswalk in front of Ximen MRT Station Exit 6.
The public has been enthusiastic about Rainbow Six, so to show the city’s embrace of gender diversity, it was decided to paint a second rainbow next to city hall, Taipei Department of Information and Tourism Commissioner Liu Yi-ting (劉奕霆) said, adding that the it would be the starting point of the Pride Parade on Oct. 31
Photo: Tsai Ya-hua, Taipei Times
There is still a lot of work to be done to achieve LGBT and gender equality, but officials and Taipei City Council members would do everything in their power to support LGBT causes to show that the city cares, Liu said.
The city has invested nearly NT$5 million (US$ 171,668) in the program, the department said.
A total of 17 “rainbow” bus tours are scheduled, which would highlight key LGBT attractions in the city, including 228 Peace Memorial Park and the Red House in Ximending (西門町).
Drag queens, the YouTubers Caca&Bella and FuFuKnows, and Weary World (厭世姬), the artist behind the Zoo of Depression comic, would accompany the tours, the department said, adding that tickets could be purchased on KKday.
Participants would receive a gift set that includes a limited-edition sports towel, a traditional shopping bag, Bravo the Bear facial mask set, a notebook and a set of Zoo of Depression stickers, the department said, adding that the first 300 people to buy tickets would also receive a Da Chun’s Soap gift set worth more than NT$800.
A five-minute Color Taipei Rainbow Light Show is to be held every 30 minutes between 6pm and 10pm on Oct. 29 and 30, and from 7 to 10pm on Oct. 31, and the shows would combine local elements with a rainbow theme set, the department said.
The department commissioned Weary World to design a 1.2m by 1.4m statue based on the theme “fundamental [chicken] rights” (雞本人權) that would be erected in front of city hall in the coming weeks.
The artist said that she was excited by the opportunity, and the placement of her work, which would allow passersby to photograph her statue and the rainbow road together.
Information on the Pride Month events can be found at the department’s Web site, Travel Taipei.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
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
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS