As Taiwan’s parliament signalled Oct 25 that it will begin reviewing a measure allowing same-sex marriage, thousands of people, including participants from other Asian countries, the United States and Europe, poured into Taipei streets for the 11th installment of Pride, The Age reports.
The Voice of Sexual Sufferer was this year’s Pride theme, a bid to highlight the ongoing discrimination people experience because of their sexuality, event spokesperson Albert Yang told The Age.
A key backdrop to the weekend parade was a bill, spearheaded by opposition legislators and set to be debated by parliament, that would amend the country’s civil code to permit gay marriage.
According to the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights, support for same-sex marriage has been gaining momentum as other countries have begun to discuss the issue and grant such unions legal standing, the report says.
Still, a lawsuit by gay couple Chen Ching-hsueh and Kao Chih-wei was dropped in January after they received death threats.
In August last year, a lesbian couple from Taipei married in Taiwan’s first gay Buddhist wedding ceremony. Huang Meiyu and You Yating were married in front of about 250 guests at the Hongshi Buddhist Seminary.
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