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September 5, 2007
Taiwan
pride parade to be held oct 13
By News Editor
Taiwan's fifth annual pride parade will be held on Oct 13 in Taipei starting
from the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and ending at City Hall.
The fifth annual Taiwan Pride parade will be held on Oct 13 in Taipei, the
organising committee announced last week.
Organised by a coalition of lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender groups including the Gender/Sexuality Rights
Association Taiwan, Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association, the gay affirmative
Tong-Kwang Light House Presbyterian Church, Federation of LGBT Teachers and
Gin Gin's bookstore.
One of the highlights this year include a huge rainbow flag that will be
formed on Zhongxiao East Road as marchers will be given coloured cards which
they will hold up.
The parade¡¯s ¡°Rainbow Power¡± hopes to appeal to the LGBT community to stand
together and be visible as a community to mainstream society.
According to a press statement issued, the Taiwan Pride Community estimates
some 10 percent of the population to be lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or
transgendered. ¡°These LGBT communities are however still treated unfairly and
are constantly discriminated against in society." The statement says that LGBT
citizens hope to "extend friendly hands to interact and have dialogue with
non-LGBT people... to overturn the negative stereotypes."
While there had been several small scale gay parades/protests since 1996, the
first official Taiwan Pride parade started in 2003 and was reportedly attended
by 20,000 marchers. The event received 70,000 TWD (USD2,117) in sponsorship
from the city government and was officiated by Mayor Ma Ying-jeou.
Taiwan appears to be one of Asia¡¯s most gay friendly territories with same-sex
marriage legislation being discussed by legislators since 2001 when the
Ministry of Justice produced a draft of the basic human rights law which
proposed that gays and lesbians be allowed to form families by legally
adopting children.
In 2005, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators proposed to amend the
2002 Gender Equality in Employment Law to include transgendered, gay and
lesbian employees.
The parade is scheduled to begin at 1.30pm in front of the Sun Yat-sen
Memorial Hall on Renai Road and ending at City Hall.
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