In Taiwan even before abortion was conditionally legal (pre 1984,) one out of every 3 women had abortion (32%)
Actually it is illegal to have an abortion in Taiwan. There are specific laws against abortion. But part of a 1984 law states that if having the baby can adversely effect the mother either physically or mentally, then it is ok to have an abortion. So that then became the legal avenue for abortion. Although once in a while there are still very inflexible judges who would sentence people for breaking the abortion law.
back to the primitive nature of the same sex marriage discussions in Taiwan…
Ke Zhi-ming, A professor from Yi-jing university (a catholic school) said on a TV talk-show that homosexuals is unnatural like cleft lip or people born without arms. This of course caused series outrage from both the LGBT community and people with disabilities.
Now, in fairness, by unnatural I think he meant to say these conditions are defects, and could use our help. But still… it’s another one of those really primitive discourse on the issue…
Internet celebrity explains diverse formation of family union law, while demonstrating how to turn a t-shirt into a tanktop… to support the cause, you see :bravo:
The argument against the bill has slow moved towards the familiar “homesexuals = anal intercourse = AIDS” false claims. They’ve spent a significant amount of resources to spread these message via youtube.
A famous music producers said on national TV (天才衝衝衝) “why can’t people be anti-gay?” Hallmark of righteous discrimination.
It is interesting that most of the anti-gay-marriage or anti-diverse-family-union articles are posted on blue papers such as UDN.
This UDN column says marriage is for the kids and not for the parents (according to this guy, married couples who can’t have kids have a meaningless marriage…) Also, Taiwan has no business in leading the owrld in family rights equality. udn.com/NEWS/OPINION/X1/8289415.shtml
This UDN column says children with gay parents will get bullied, that’s why we shouldn’t blame the society for letting discrimination run rampant, we should just keep teaching our kids to discriminate against those who are different. udn.com/NEWS/OPINION/X1/8289406.shtml
Actually the blue are in general more against gay marriage. The bill was drafted entirely by the green, and the past presidential candidates from the green all support gay marriage. There are some anti-gay marriage from the green as well, but majority of them are blue. Curiously, President Ma was supportive of gay marriage, especially when he was the mayor of Taipei, but now he is very quiet about this, but I guess it’s a good thing considering the 9% approval rating… I think Taiwan have a funny political party platform, there’s no western equivalent. We pay retired government officials like the Greeks, crazy military spending like conservatives, national healthcare although nice, but unsustainable in the long term (very liberal), crazy infidelity laws (conservative), very harsh penalty for marijuana, yet some murderers can get out of prison after 9 years and etc. It feels like a mix of Norway, Texas and Saudi Arabia.
Yeah it’s disheartening to see the ugly side of the seemingly tolerable society surfacing, all the hatred and ignorance. The homophobic and bigoted comments reminds me of the anti-gay sentiments around early 2000s, the fascination and AIDS and anal sex =.=;;; So I guess the Taiwan’s public is about 10 years behind the States. But what is worrying me the most is the most American or Western youth I met are very supportive of gay rights, but the youths in Taiwan have a much higher percentage of close-minded thinking, although still a lot better compared to their parents…
But to be honest I think they are right, the society isn’t mature enough to handle gay marriage yet, even though it is the right thing to do. Bullying is a really big problem here, and there’s not enough social support right now for the kids of gay families to deal with such problems. The overly conservative school officials might even give the proper support, protection, and education.
And for the youtube video, I find it so amusing because if she was a white, I would not find it strange lol, but in this context I find it extremely funny. But kudos to her!
I think a portion of anti-homesexual marriage from the Green camp are Christians. There is a significant Taiwanese holo Christian presence in the Taiwanese independent movement (namely the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, with famous names like Barclay and Mackay), which is different from the Mandarin Christian church brought by Chiang Kai-shek and KMT.
Although Presbyterian Church in Taiwan is a bit more open on the issue of homosexual marriages, but there’s no solid consensuses inside the church, and they often look towards the US presbyterian church for guidelines, and of course they get none. So there are still people taking a more traditional approach on the issue who don’t keep an open mind on the subject.
Taiwan’s extreme Christian branch preaching for believers to cut ties with all homosexual friends. According to the priest, homosexual is caused by some kind of spirit, and any association with them will set you up for the trap to be affected.
Frankly it’s a bit hard to believe people like these have a following… but then again, the same priest claimed that people will receive diamonds from angels for believing in Jesus… so…
I wonder if there are any American fundamentlist “Christian” groups involved in stirring up hatred and homophobia here, like they have been doing in Uganda and Russia.
That woman constantly brings up her travels within the US. Apparently she has a master in theology from the “Chinese for Christ, Calvin Chao, Theological Seminary” based in Alhambra, , next to the Cornerstone Christian church of Los Angeles, which explains why she constantly brings up Cerritos, Rosemead and Alhambra. chineseforchrist.com/
I went to several Bibile Reading/church functions when I was in college in that area, but never got the extremist, supernatural, vibe… It could just be her, a specific branch, or reserved for people who actually goes to church.
Other Chinese Christian groups had came out against same-sex marriages, such as the Chinese Bible Missions Church, or NAMBLA. Ok, fine not NAMBLA, CBMCLA. gayusathemovie.com/2012/03/chine … -boundary/
So I think fundamentlist Christian groups are well established in the Chinese American circle, all they need to do is export it to Taiwan.
For those who don’t understand her “gospel”, she is basically saying that there’s a whole department of a national university filled with homosexuals, because the dean is homosexual, and the spirit has a proximity effect which turns people into homosexuals.
By the way, people are calling her MC MeiJiang. MC MeiJiang is a rapper, a trance mixer and does many other styles of music.
huh I’m wondering if it is the same super conservative (and batsh*t crazy) LA church that one of my mom’s friends go to… They call themselves super Christians yet they do the most unChristian things, like refuse to neuter their dogs so they can sell their puppies to buy brand new TVs :fume:
Anyways there’s another crazy fundamentalist lady called 梁瓊月 who people are comparing to 郭美江. She claims the popular Buddhist deity Guanyin is a most promiscuous devil :loco:. Her reasoning is that in some stories Guanyin appears as a man, in other as a woman, therefore that’s why the Chinese culture is so sexually immoral.
I personally welcome these free (hate)speech so people can see how crazy and malicious they are.
For some reason there’s been a (seemingly) tremendous progress on the realisation of legalisation but it’d be a better idea to not expect anything. This is still Taiwan.
A nice article in the Washington Post about this matter. To the point noted by Hansioux and others above, the article mentions that the bill was proposed by the DPP, and the DPP seems to represent younger, more liberal Taiwanese voters.
You are talking about floor votes, there are several stages before a bill gets to the floor. These bills needs to get through the procedure committees, and get approved in the deliberation meetings.
The latest protest was smaller than expected. The Christians suspected their pagan friends were up to some mischief.
In a skit, protesters piled placards depicting pro-homosexual marriage politicians as scorpions, snakes, tarantulas and toads onto a boat which they symbolically “sent off.”
Numbers at the protest were limited by a rumor among church members that the “sending off” boat skit would actually be a religious ritual, which deterred many Christians from attending, she said.
