A heterosexual couple and two homosexual couples yesterday held joint weddings in Taipei to promote gender equality, one day after Taiwan became the first Asian nation to legalize same-sex marriage.
Veteran gay rights activist Chi Chia-wei (祁家威) bore witness to the weddings of Wu Shih-liang (吳士良) and Pan Yi-ling (潘怡琳), who are heterosexual; lesbian YouTubers who prefer to be known as Amber and “Huan-huan” (歡歡); and gay couple “A-yo” (阿佑) and “A-to” (阿拓).
All three couples said that their families had disapproved of their relationships.
Photo: Yang Mien-chieh, Taipei Times
One participant said that they were from a churchgoing family.
Another said that in an attempt to change their sexual orientation, their relatives placed an amulet in water and forced them to drink it.
However, they never gave up on communicating with their families, they said.
Chi, donning rainbow-colored attire, said that when he first lobbied the Legislative Yuan to legalize same-sex marriage, some called him a “pervert.”
Although Taiwan was not the world’s first nation to legalize same-sex marriage, it is in the forefront at 27th, Chi said, expressing the hope that other Asian nations would also legalize same-sex marriage soon.
He encouraged the newlyweds to love, trust, help and tolerate each other, saying that is the key to a happy family.
Commenting on the public’s stigmatization of HIV, he compared the disease to the common cold, saying that the fatality rate of HIV could be reduced to as low as 0.1 percent.
Taiwan AIDS Society president Hung Chien-ching (洪建清) called on newlywed homosexual couples to look out for each other’s health and undergo all necessary screening to keep their marriage intimate, healthy and safe.
HIV is like hypertension or diabetes in that it can be controlled if a carrier receives proper treatment and care, he said.
Marriage Equality Platform convener Jennifer Lu (呂欣潔) said that HIV was used as a weapon against the campaign to legalize same-sex marriage.
Medical experts have underlined the importance of screenings in HIV prevention, Lu said, calling on the public to form fact-based opinions on the disease and people with different sexual orientations.
In related news, the second Yilan Pride Parade is to be held on Saturday next week, one day after the Enforcement Act of Judicial Yuan Constitutional Interpretation No. 748 (司法院釋字第748號解釋施行法) takes effect and same-sex couples may start registering their marriage at household registration offices.
The parade is to start at 2pm at Jhongshan Park (中山公園) in Yilan County’s Luodong Township (羅東).
In keeping with local wedding tradition, members of the Yilan Pride Parade Alliance yesterday set off firecrackers and stepped on tiles at a news conference to promote the event.
The theme of the parade is “home,” which is meant to convey the message that there are many kinds of homes, such as those run by grandparents, single parents or Aboriginal parents, as well as a home run by same-sex couples.
The alliance hopes to attract 1,000 participants to join the parade, which is to take place along a 4.4km route.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
RSS