A gay and lesbian group yesterday hailed what it said was the biggest ever gay pride parade in Asia over the weekend, saying 30,000 people had taken to the streets for the event.
“The rally was a big success as the turnout was bigger than we had expected,” spokesman for Taiwan LGBT Pride Rex Shau (邵祺邁)
said.
The tens of thousands who marched through Taipei on Saturday, included supporters from China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, organizers said.
Waving rainbow flags and placards, the marchers paraded for about 1km, many wearing Brazilian carnival-style costumes, while others wore only men’s briefs despite chilly winds and drizzle.
Organizers said they hoped to move gay and lesbian issues higher up Taiwan’s political agenda ahead of the special municipal elections in five cities that are slated to take place on Nov. 27.
“While we hoped the rally would raise awareness of gays and lesbians, the rally also aimed to vie for substantial support from the election candidates,” Shau said. “Some politicians just paid lip service, never taking real steps to adopt non-discrimination measures.”
The Executive Yuan in 2003 drafted a bill to legalize same-sex marriages and recognize the rights of homosexual couples to adopt children, which would make it the first country in Asia to do so. However, the law has yet to be passed and some gay groups have criticized its drafting as simply a ploy to woo voters.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
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