The gay bookshop Gin Gin's (
The police went to Gin Gin's on Aug. 25 last year and took away more than 500 erotic gay magazines.
PHOTO: LIAO CHENG-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
The confiscated magazines included some that are legally published in Hong Kong and His, a Taiwanese magazine.
Gin Gin's proprietor Lai Jeng-jer (賴正哲) has been charged with offences against morals and the prosecutor has asked for a simplified judgment.
A simplified judgment is proposed by the prosecutor when the accused has committed only a minor crime but there is already sufficient evidence to convict the offender.
"Magazines like His have been on sale in Eslite (
Lai pointed out that many erotic heterosexual magazines had more provocative content than the confiscated gay magazines, and he said that when police wanted to crack down on "indecent" publications, they should not treat homosexual ones differently from heterosexual ones.
Lai yesterday also filed a petition to the court to have a homosexual judge preside over the trial and to invite 100 homosexuals to review the magazines to consider whether the contents are indecent.
"Taiwan is a place where people don't know very much about homosexuals and where there is considerable discrimination against homosexuals, so to get a fair trial, I would like to ask heterosexual judges to avoid the case," Lai said.
"The definition of indecency may vary from person to person, and a homosexual male's perception of indecency cannot be arbitrated by a heterosexual male, so we would like to have 100 homosexual males to review the magazines and see if they consider the content indecent."
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS