pride parade – Taiwan’s legalization of same-sex marriage
This article is about the annual pride parade in Taipei, the largest one held in East Asia in October. This year, more than 100000 people gathered on the street and celebrated the LGBTQ rights and the legalization of same-sex marriage. It was a historic moment when Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage this May 24, 2019, because it was the very first country in Asia that made it possible. It’s been almost half a year, and more than 2150 same-sex couples have married in Taiwan so far. This different article includes more details behind the legalization and the situations in Asia and other countries.
These articles are related to the course concepts because they highlight the LGBTQ issues in terms of allowing same-sex marriage, a highly controversial topic in the world. The event is important because Taiwan took the first step toward achieving equality for LGBTQ people in Asia. All the other countries in Asia (including China and Japan) still consider same-sex marriage as illegal, but this historic event might have an impact on other Asian countries’ decision about the issue. I think this news brings a lot of hope and joy to LGBTQ people, because the legalization protects their rights and promotes equality in society. Considering the fact that almost all the countries that accept same-sex marriage are in Western areas like North America and Europe, this news about Taiwan has such a historical significance in Asia.
I can use the first article about the pride parade just to introduce the topic of LGBTQ, but I think the second article is more useful in terms of its background information about the legalization of same-sex marriage. Especially, the world map shows the countries that recognize same-sex marriage, which is helpful. It would be interesting to discuss why the distribution on the map is unbalanced like that.
When I see articles highlighting queerness in Asia, my heart fills with happiness. My entire life (and I’m sure the lives of many others), being queer was not even an option. There was just, no such thing. My parents never even said the word “gay” or “lesbian” around me and my brother. It was just not something that was spoken about.
While I was working abroad, one of my cousins (a true role model) shocked the entire family by getting married to his long time partner (a man). It rocked my family’s world. Apparently, you can’t just pretend that something doesn’t exist, even if you really really want it to not be a thing.
I was told that his mother fainted, and the rest of my family basically ostricized him. This is my family who has made a life for themselves in the hyper-liberal seeming SF Bay Area.
So … MANY snaps for the people who are brave enough to stand up against these “social norms” and speak their truth. It makes me truly proud to see this kind of representation in the media.
Thanks for your comments, Ann! I really appreciate you always sharing your personal experiences. I do agree with you in that those people are so brave to speak up in public and show their true identity. I hope more and more people (especially older generations) will show understanding toward LGBTQ people in the future!
Thanks for sharing this, Mari! It’s nice to see other promising articles about how LGBTQ rights are moving up in the world at least a little. As I mentioned in my reflection, we all need a little feel-good news in this work.
I was tutoring Taiwanese diplomats right before this happened. They were so very happy and excited about this.
An quote that I found interesting in the article was ““Taiwan is an independent country with an advanced civil society and a liberal environment. That’s completely different from China,” said Peng Yuhao, a 24-year-old sales representative”.
This was SUPER powerful. This semester, I work with Chinese news agents, and I think they would find this quote offensive. I feel like I wouldn’t be able to discuss this type of news with them because of this quote. This makes me think about how political systems, history, and laws can deeply shape the way we perceive human rights/social justice issues.
What do you think?
Oh, thanks for pointing it out, Kate! That’s a really good point and I’m very afraid that I didn’t pay enough attention to it when I was reading the article, honestly. I do think that quote is very strong and offensive to the people from mainland China, so I wouldn’t choose to use this article, either. This semester, I’m doing my practicum in Kathi’s professional presentation class, and there we have some students from mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. One student from China always has very strong opinions about the political situations regarding those Asian areas (like “we can’t call Hong Kong a country, because it’s a part of China”) and I often feel a lot of tension going on among them when she makes those comments. I’d like to gain more skills of how to deal with these politically sensitive issues when they are brought up or highlighted by those students in the class.