This year’s online-only Taiwan LGBT Pride parade on Saturday next week is to feature interactive “stages” with celebrity performances and drag queen shows, organizer Taiwan Rainbow Civil Action Association said.
In place of the event’s normal parade through downtown Taipei, the 19th edition of the event would include five interactive stages — Main Stage, Party Float, International Pride Issues, Parade Issues and Chat Box — accessible through the event’s Web site, event.taiwanpride.lgbt, the association said.
The lineup for this year’s event includes celebrity performances, drag queen shows, chat rooms and online shopping from 2pm to 5:30pm, it said.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
The organizers last month announced that the parade would be held virtually this year due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Association spokesperson Tai Yu-hsun (戴佑勳) on Tuesday said that even though the nation’s COVID-19 situation has been improving, it was too late to reverse preparations for an online event, which started when domestic cases were still climbing.
“When we were planning for the parade earlier in the year, we were just about to enter a level 3 COVID-19 alert. So, if we made any changes now, it would affect the agreements we have with our collaborators,” Tai said.
Restrictions on public gatherings were introduced after a nationwide level 3 alert was announced on May 19 following a surge in domestic cases. With daily local case numbers regularly in the single digits, the Central Epidemic Command Center on July 27 announced a return to a level 2 alert.
About 130,000 people attended last year’s parade, which followed a record-breaking turnout of 200,000 in 2019 — the same year Taiwan became the first nation in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage.
Association chairman Fletcher Hong (小鯨) said that despite recent progress, society has not yet reached true equality for people in the LGBT community.
“We often see areas, such as in shops or restrooms, labeled as ‘gender friendly’ spaces, but the purpose of that is so people can be themselves instead of having it as a place of refuge... We need to make being ‘friendly’ a part of our daily normal life,” Hong said.
Another focus of the event is HIV/AIDS education.
Chiu Yi-chi (邱奕頎), a director at the Persons with HIV/AIDS Rights Advocacy Association of Taiwan, said there was still a stigma attached to those infected with HIV — despite growing evidence that those with undetectable levels of the virus can no longer transmit it to sexual partners.
“Sometimes HIV positive people are turned away by dentists because they fear that they might not be able to fully disinfect their equipment,” Chiu said, adding that long-term nursing facilities sometimes refuse to let those with HIV share rooms with other patients.
Chiu said he hoped the work by his organization would help people in Taiwan learn more about medical advancements related to HIV and AIDS, and reduce stigmatization by introducing people to the friends and families of those with the disease.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
RSS