No matter what their rationale is, the marriage equality bill has not been passed, and is now facing more and more opposition from Christian groups in Taiwan.
Back in my younger days, we marched and marched until the New Zealand Homosexual Law Reform bills was passed, and then we marched and marched until the Human Rights Bill was amended.
In my opinion a Gay Pride Parade should not have a theme every year, it is a march for complete equality, and ONLY when all rights are equal can you think about turning it into a theme/circus parade.
Last year’s parade was a disorganized mess, and the marriage equality message was overshadowed by marchers carrying signs promoting their own agenda.
I see little hope for gay rights in Taiwan if gays are unable or unwilling to unify and fight together for equal rights.
The idea of theming an annual event sounds so Taiwanese to me. I don’t see a problem with it, though.
The local pride parade has gone on for a long time, since well before the idea of gay marriage had even entered most people’s imaginations here. In the five years I’ve been in Taiwan, I’ve made an effort to see every parade (I am an enthusiastic supporter of gay marriage… No idea how I ended up with so many gay friends but I suspect a cause-effect relationship somewhere in there), but last year’s was the first time I saw people openly and loudly clamoring for marriage equality on a large scale. Thumbs up.
Prior to that, though, I think this event has largely been separate from actually campaigning for gay marriage. It is a celebration of being gay and a way to increase awareness that gay people are just people, that despite what many believe gays are not insidious child molesters sneaking around in back alleys, and despite what Christian groups would have you think they are not ashamed of their lifestyle. That all sounds like a good reason to parade through the streets to me.
I’ve never been able to attend because I’ve always had to work on Saturdays. This will finally be my first year going, and I read the above. I really, really hope that’s not what the theme is promoting.
Nothing objectionable at all…and perfectly in line with the fight for equal rights.
Apparently I am not the only one who is confused, a number of locals also told me they would not participate as they had no desire to been supporting recreational drug use etc.
And, I am still confused as to why there is mention of this in their article:
It does seem rather unrelated to gay rights, I agree. The topic of recreational drug use will be part of the pre-parade discussion panel/forum on “sexuality punishable by the state,” though I really don’t see why. That doesn’t strike me as a terribly good reason for boycotting the parade, though.
I’m excited to be in Taipei for pride this year. I fly out in the morning from the US.
I am a little confused about the dual parade route. From my understanding of the map it looks like the starting point is the big plaza in front of City Hall. Is that correct? Is that also where it ends? Is there a good vantage point that would allow me to see both branches of the parade? Are there other festivities after the parade? Does everyone just head over to Ximending?
They cancelled the duo route, which was dumb and really pissed me off during the past two parades. There’s only one now (the east route is cancelled), so no worries.
This whole controversy of this year’s theme started with a prick volunteer staff from the gay hotline org (note: not from parade committee) told the media in an interview that the usage of recreational drugs is the new norm in Taiwan.
Then because of the horribly named theme, sex refugees, many people got very confused about whether part of this year’s parade motto is to legalize recreational drugs and support the drug-fueled sex parties. The parade committee took days to respond to the confusion, but the damage was made. I know quite a few gays+lesbians who are boycotting this year.
Many are still on the fence. Because of the horrible quality of media/reporters here, we can’t imagine what the headline will be on Sunday, hopefully it is not “tens of thousands walk the street to support legalizing recreational drugs”
so either:
show up to support, and might be mistaken for a bad cause
I will still go, because I think it’s important to keep fighting for the gay rights. But I think it’s also really stupid to include drugs thematics in this Pride, it will only give a bad image of gay people, and maybe confuse familly about “what it is to be gay” (the most conservative people may use this as an argument later, saying that “all gay are drug users, so it’s dangerous for society…”).
Anyway, I hope the weather will be good and still a lot of people will come
