More than 60,000 people yesterday participated in the 11th Kaohsiung Pride parade — the largest crowd in its history — which was held under the theme of “We! Around You!”
The parade began at about 2pm in front of Dayi Park and proceeded along Dacheng Street and Wufu 3rd Road, across the Love River (愛河), before making a loop back to the starting point.
The Kaohsiung government also showed its support by raising rainbow flags at its Siwei and Fongshan offices.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) posted a photo on Facebook of a city initiative to paint a pavement at the Pier-2 Art Center in rainbow colors and said that “love and tolerance is one of the most beautiful things about Taiwan.”
The 4km parade was followed by performances of artists, and speeches by organizers and LGBT rights advocates.
One of the speakers, Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan chief coordinator Jennifer Lu (呂欣潔), said that the legalization of same-sex marriages was only a start, as other issues that affect the LGBT community remain unresolved.
For example, same-sex couples still face more restrictions in adoption than their heterosexual counterparts, she said.
Although same-sex marriage was in May last year legalized by 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), married same-sex couples are not allowed to adopt children with whom they do not have a blood relationship.
However, she thanked Kaohsiung City councilors for supporting the issue and arranging for the pavement to be painted in rainbow colors.
Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights secretary-
general Chien Chih-chieh (簡至潔) pushed the group’s call for the recognition of same-sex marriages between Taiwanese and foreigners regardless of whether their home country recognizing same-sex marriage.
Being excluded from same-sex marriage makes it difficult for the foreign partners to travel to and stay in Taiwan, as they can often only obtain temporary student or tourist visas.
Aboriginal singer Abao, who this year won multiple Golden Melody Awards, her fellow Aboriginal singer Suming Rupi and drag group In Your Face were among the performers.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a