More than 60,000 people yesterday participated in the 11th Kaohsiung Pride parade — the largest crowd in its history — which was held under the theme of “We! Around You!”
The parade began at about 2pm in front of Dayi Park and proceeded along Dacheng Street and Wufu 3rd Road, across the Love River (愛河), before making a loop back to the starting point.
The Kaohsiung government also showed its support by raising rainbow flags at its Siwei and Fongshan offices.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) posted a photo on Facebook of a city initiative to paint a pavement at the Pier-2 Art Center in rainbow colors and said that “love and tolerance is one of the most beautiful things about Taiwan.”
The 4km parade was followed by performances of artists, and speeches by organizers and LGBT rights advocates.
One of the speakers, Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan chief coordinator Jennifer Lu (呂欣潔), said that the legalization of same-sex marriages was only a start, as other issues that affect the LGBT community remain unresolved.
For example, same-sex couples still face more restrictions in adoption than their heterosexual counterparts, she said.
Although same-sex marriage was in May last year legalized by the Act for Implementation of Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 748 (司法院釋字第七四八號解釋施行法), married same-sex couples are not allowed to adopt children with whom they do not have a blood relationship.
However, she thanked Kaohsiung City councilors for supporting the issue and arranging for the pavement to be painted in rainbow colors.
Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights secretary-
general Chien Chih-chieh (簡至潔) pushed the group’s call for the recognition of same-sex marriages between Taiwanese and foreigners regardless of whether their home country recognizing same-sex marriage.
Being excluded from same-sex marriage makes it difficult for the foreign partners to travel to and stay in Taiwan, as they can often only obtain temporary student or tourist visas.
Aboriginal singer Abao, who this year won multiple Golden Melody Awards, her fellow Aboriginal singer Suming Rupi and drag group In Your Face were among the performers.
TECH SECTOR: Nvidia Corp also announced its intent to build an overseas headquarters in Taiwan, with Taipei and New Taipei City each attempting to woo the US chipmaker The US-based Super Micro Computer Inc and Taiwan’s Guo Rui on Wednesday announced a joint venture to build a computation center powered only by renewable energy. After meeting with Supermicro founder Charles Liang (梁見後) and Guo Rui chairman Lin Po-wen (林博文), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) instructed a cross-ministry panel to be established to help promote the government’s green energy policies and facilitate efforts to obtain land for the generation of green power, Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said. Cho thanked Liang for his company’s support of the government’s 2019 Action Plan for Welcoming Overseas Taiwanese Businesses to Return to Invest in
The unification of China and Taiwan is “non-negotiable,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) said yesterday in response to an article by a Chinese academic suggesting that Beijing would not set a timetable for the annexation of Taiwan in the next four years. Chinese international studies researcher Yan Xuetong (閻學通) at Beijing’s Tsinghua University wrote in an article published last week in Foreign Affairs that China’s focus for the next four years would be revitalizing the economy, not preparing a timetable to invade Taiwan. The TAO said that was only the personal opinion of an academic. The Chinese Communist Party has since 1949 committed
China is likely to focus on its economy over the next four years and not set a timetable for attempting to annex Taiwan, a researcher at Beijing’s Tsinghua University wrote in an article published in Foreign Affairs magazine on Friday. In the article titled “Why China isn’t scared of Trump: US-Chinese tensions may rise, but his isolationism will help Beijing,” Chinese international studies researcher Yan Xuetong (閻學通) wrote that the US and China are unlikely to go to war over Taiwan in the next four years under US president-elect Donald Trump. While economic and military tensions between the US and China would
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said Thursday it had caught 124 people attempting to use forged documents to visit Taiwan since allowing Chinese nationals based overseas to apply for entry permits in September last year. The NIA’s revelation comes after unnamed immigration officials and travel agency workers cited in a CNA report Wednesday said that Chinese entry permit applicants had submitted forged documents showing they were students in Malaysia. After closing its borders to Chinese tourists on Jan. 22, 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan began allowing those living or studying outside of China to enter from a third country on Sept.
RSS