The Taiwan Tongzhi (LGBTQ+) Hotline Association yesterday urged employers to create more gender-friendly workplace environments, saying that transgender people continue to face many problems at work.
Taiwan has legalized same-sex marriage and is a model for gender equality in Asia, the association said.
However, a survey it conducted with the Taiwan Equality Campaign last year showed that 53.1 percent of companies have yet to implement any gender-friendly measures or make an attempt to create a LGBT-friendly workplace, the association said.
One of the main issues faced by transgender people is that they often have trouble finding a job, association secretary-general Tsai Ying-chich (蔡瑩芝) told a news conference in Taipei, citing reports it has received from transgender people.
Many transgender people write down on their resumes or job applications forms the gender that is recorded on their national identification cards, the association said.
However, because the photographs on their resumes or applications might not match that gender description, transgender people might not be able to find an ideal job or even get an interview, it said.
Another issue is that in some work environments, transgender people might not be able to access the bathroom that matches their gender identity, it said.
It added that some workplace environments not only require workers to wear a uniform, but also have different styles of uniform for male and female employees.
This forces transgender workers to wear a uniform that does not correspond with their personal gender identity, it said.
Some managers ask other employees in the company whether they would be willing to work with a transgender colleague or announce in advance that a transgender person would be joining the company, resulting in everyone in the workplace knowing they are transgender even in cases where other people might not have had questions about their gender based on their appearance, it said.
Taiwan has been discussing the need for gender-friendly workplaces for many years, but in the past the focus has been on women and gay or lesbian groups, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) said.
She said she would urge government agencies to promote more inclusive measures, such as having companies remove the gender question on their job application forms or giving applicants the option of choosing “other” as a response.
The association called for greater public awareness of the need for transgender-friendly workplaces ahead of the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia on Monday next week.
The association said it would invite people to upload photographs of themselves wearing clothing in light blue, pink and white — the colors of the transgender pride flag — onto Facebook or Instagram on Monday with the hashtag #517我挺跨, the characters of which mean “I support the transgender community,” to show their support, it said.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not