The Taoyuan District Court on Friday ordered a former dean and a head military instructor at Chang Gung University to pay damages for using discriminatory language against a transgender student.
The former dean and the instructor must pay NT$80,000 and NT$120,000 respectively for the remarks they made to the plaintiff at a school meeting in 2017, the presiding judge wrote in a summary ruling.
The student had applied for accommodation in the school’s female dormitory, but her request was denied by the defendants, the ruling said.
Photo courtesy of Chang Gung University
The dean’s comparison of the plaintiff to cross-dressers and the instructor’s remark: “I am a Christian and God created only two sexes,” are in contravention of the Gender Equity Education Act (性別平等教育法), it said.
Military instructors are partly responsible for promoting gender equality on campus, a duty the defendant neglected, the court said.
Authority figures using their power to impose binary views of gender on a student is a breach of the right to personality under the Civil Code, it said.
By asking the plaintiff if she is a “man or woman under the law,” the military instructor failed to promote gender equality, which is part of the duties of campus military instructors, it added.
The school should not be fined for denying the plaintiff a spot in the female dormitory, as it later set up separate “gender-friendly” accommodations in 2018, the ruling said.
Experts have testified that separate accommodations for transgender students cannot be truly equal and the court acknowledges the validity of the testimonies, but demanding that the school change overnight is not reasonable, it said.
The school declined to comment on the ruling, only saying that it is not appropriate to speak on behalf of retired faculty and staff.
The ruling can be appealed.
‘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 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS