President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) supports marriage equality and believes everyone is equal before love, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said on Thursday as more than 10,000 people gathered outside the Legislative Yuan protesting the review of amendments for same-sex marriage.
However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Policy Committee chief executive and party spokesman Alex Tsai (蔡正元), a former lawmaker, sided with the protesters, blasting the “attempt to abolish the marriage institution of heterosexuals” by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and saying that the president was supporting the effort because she is “99 percent homosexual oriented.”
Huang said Tsai Ying-wen urged tolerance.
“We are pleased to see more dialogue and tolerance in society, which will help establish a more comprehensive system,” he said.
Asked about the small group of protesters who entered the legislature’s compound during the protest, Huang said that Taiwan is a democracy and all opinions should be listened to, adding that he respected the way they chose to express their opinions.
“We should all respect discussion in the legislature and the legislative process,” Huang said.
Many people have called the Presidential Office to express their opposition to the legalization of same-sex marriage, he said.
However, in posts on Facebook, Alex Tsai said that he was “protesting to Tsai Ing-wen and the DPP for [trying to] amend the Civil Code and abolish the existing marriage institution to accommodate the homosexuals’ marriage institution.”
The proposed amendment would “abolish the titles of ‘father and mother,’ ‘grandfather and grandmother,’ and ‘husband and wife’ and abolish the institution of in-laws,” he wrote.
“Tsai Ing-wen herself is 99 percent homosexual-oriented,” he wrote. “Leaving the more important national affairs aside, she is trying to force through the abolishment of the institution of heterosexual marriage without a democratic procedure, a referendum or first soliciting public opinion. The public should accept homosexuals’ feelings, but people would not say yes to the abolishment of the heterosexual marriage institution for homosexuals by Tsai Ing-wen and the DPP authoritarian rule.”
Huang said Alex Tsai’s remarks were “too despicable to deserve a response.”
However, on his personal Facebook page, Huang said that it was “sad to see this company end up like this,” referring to the KMT.
“[Alex Tsai was] taking sexual orientations and genders as discriminatory labels and disseminating hatred with cruel and despicable language; these kind of political comments only accelerate the company’s road to delisting,” Huang wrote.
KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) on Thursday said she supports homosexuals’ rights and they should not be discriminated against, but more communication and mutual respect is needed on the issue of a same-sex marriage amendment to avoid social polarization.
KMT Legislator Jason Hsu (許毓仁), who resisted pressure from his KMT colleagues who on Thursday voted to hold 30 public hearings on the amendment — a move many onlookers saw as an effort to stall passage of the amendments — called Alex Tsai’s comments about the amendments threat to traditional family values and the institution of marriage “nonsense.”
Former KMT Youth League head Hsiao Ching-yan (蕭敬嚴) was even more disgusted by the remarks.
In a Facebook post, Hsiao asked if Alex Tsai’s real aim was to “destroy the KMT” with his “mad comments” that went against public opinion and common sense.
“Let me reiterate: The cause of a party’s bankruptcy would never be the loss of its assets, but the loss of the public’s endorsement and support,” Hsiao wrote.
Additional reporting by Yang Chun-hui
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at