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.
TAIWAN PRIDE - WEB SITE
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