More than 200,000 people yesterday gathered for a public concert on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in support of same-sex marriage.
The concert, which had a theme of supporting equal marriage rights and preventing deaths caused by discrimination against gay people, coincided with Human Rights Day, the concert’s organizers said.
More than 20 artists took to the stage to express solidarity with supporters of same-sex marriage, including Hong Kong musician and pro-democracy advocate Denise Ho (何韻詩).
Photo: AP/Chiang Ying-ying
TV host Belle Yu (于美人) made an appearance onstage and tossed a bouquet to the crowd and wished gay couples luck in their bid to become legally united, while singers Kenji Wu (吳克群) and Aaron Yan (炎亞綸) joined the crowd to show their support.
Shortly after the event began, organizers flew a large rainbow flag made of balloons in front of the Presidential Office Building as a message to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the public’s demand to legalize same-sex marriage.
Legislators across party lines attended the event to show their support, while participants holding up fliers and flowers chanted: “No Civil Code amendments, no end to discrimination.”
Photo: CNA
The organizers said that the crowd started to gather at 1pm and reached at least 200,000 people at about 4pm, spanning 4km.
The crowd cheered when Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女), who in October proposed the bill to amend the Civil Code, took to the stage to make a speech.
Same-sex marriage is a lofty dream, Yu said, adding that the ongoing legislative process is like mountaineering: The peak is in sight, but it does not always mean the road ahead will be easy.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Yu said that she and her colleagues at the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee would clear committee reviews of three draft bills aimed at legalizing same-sex marriage, which are scheduled for Dec. 26.
However, as the end of the legislative session nears, a bill might not be passed until June, following cross-caucus negotiations, she said, urging the public to use this time to engage in rational discussions on gay marriage.
All five members of the New Power Party (NPP) legislative caucus also attended the event to show their support.
Photo: Tsai Shu-yuan, Taipei Times
Love is what unites all the participants at the event and NPP legislators are just like any other people in the crowd who want equal marriage rights, justice and love, NPP Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said.
“I believe that we will succeed if we continue on this path,” he said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators Ko Chih-en (柯志恩), Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) and Jason Hsu (許毓仁) also voiced their support for same-sex marriage in pre-recorded videos, with Chiang and Hsu saying they are in favor of amending the Civil Code.
Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said that Tsai supports marriage equality and believes that gay people have the right to marriage.
“With regard to the draft bills, they are being discussed in the legislature. We welcome and look forward to more dialogue and a higher level of tolerance in society to better safeguard the rights of gay people,” Alex Huang said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat