Gender equality groups yesterday presented an LGBTQ white paper, urging presidential candidates from the three major parties to consider the needs and experiences of the LGBTQ community and propose gender equality policies ahead of next year’s elections.
This month is marked internationally as Pride Month, and many politicians worldwide have spoken about policy issues for LGBTQ rights, Rainbow Equality Platform chief executive officer Teng Chu-yuan (鄧筑媛) said.
The group hopes the white paper would provide some insight for Taiwanese politicians and that the presidential candidates would include the LGBTQ community in their vision of Taiwan’s future, she told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo courtesy of the Rainbow Equality Platform
Parties need to be more active in making politics more gender-equal, encouraging more LGBTQ political participation and increasing the number of politicians that are openly LGBTQ, group member Weng Yu-ching (翁鈺清) said.
The group’s is creating a similar Web page to Pride Watch, which monitored last year’s local elections and encouraged people to keep track of LGBTQ-related issues on the Web site.
The white paper suggested that schools and education institutions install teachers at all levels who are cognizant, accepting and would not shy from discussion of gender equality issues, Taiwan Gender Equity Education Association secretary-general Han Yi-chen (韓宜臻).
Recent sexual harassment cases have shown that students are not the only people who require gender equality education, Han said.
Since the amendments to the Act for Implementation of Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 748 (司法院釋字第748號解釋施行法) were passed in 2019, many same-sex couples have faced difficulties in applying for birth subsidies, visa extensions to care for their children and nationality recognition issues for international families, Taiwan LGBT Family Rights Advocacy Association secretary-general Li Hsuan-ping (黎璿萍) said.
Parties should be aware of the difficulties and needs facing same-sex families and address these issues, she said.
The government’s statistics — which show fewer than 10 gender-equality lawsuits filed annually on the grounds of being bullied or discriminated against due to gender or sexual identity — do not accurately reflect the reality, Taiwan LGBTQ Hotline Association secretary-general Tu Ssu-cheng (杜思誠) said.
Tu urged the government to implement more friendly policies to address gender equality complaints being dropped because the plaintiff did not wish to be “outed.”
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