Taiwan's Pride Parade 31 Oct 09

The main reason I made a trip to Taipei last weekend was to take a look at the Pride Parade.

This is not the first Pride Parade I've seen. When I was in Oregon, I went to Portland's Pride Parade as well as Vancouver's (Washington State, not the one in Cananda) Picnic in the Park (instead of a march, they have carnival style event in a park).

But this Pride Parade is different in various aspects. Firstly, I found a stronger sense of affinity and identity, because this is Asian and, in particular,Chinese. I was more of a curious by-stander in the American's parades. But I felt I am more of a participant in Taipei's parade -- part of the struggle for greater acceptance. Secondly, there is a greater sense of reality, in the way this looks like something that perhaps would be possible in Singapore one day. Finally, I think over the years, my own sexual identity has evolved.

Some of my gay friends derided Taipei's parade pride as mindless mimic of Western cultures, of being "in your face" by marching in near nudity. Well, what I found was that's not really the case. There are people marching in swim wear and underwear, but they are really the minority. But they do get the most attention on the news and media and create the impression that everyone is marching in near nudity. (OK, I have to admit, I have lots of photos of the guys in swim wear too.)

This year was Taipei's 7th Pride March. I had not realize it had been so many years. I just found out that Hong Kong just had their second one over the same weekend.

Here's some photo's from the parade.

Love Out Loud 同志爱很大

This is me at the starting/ending point. The theme of this year's march is Love Out Loud (同志爱很大).

The Water Boys 水男孩

This is the Water Boys contingent. They get the loudest cheers and is the focus of the parade. The Water Boys is an informal swim group, just a group of guys who meet up and go swimming together. With quite a number of hot hunks in there, there is no wonder they get the most attention. Someway along the march, I overheard a female tourist telling her friend, "Oh my! I just had this group of hot hunks walking right by me!"

But they do get a lot of flak for marching in their trunks too. Apparently, there were a lot of criticism on the internet. Personally, I didn't think it was a big deal. In fact, they weren't behaving outrageously at all. They only stripped down to their trunks just before the march start (which was why I couldn't find them at first. haha!) and after the march, they put on their shorts quickly.

They have just opened their membership to women as well. I would be curious as too how many women would join them.


The Christian Reaction

Apparently, the greatest opposition the gay community face is from the Christians as well. Even though the Christian community is not as strong as in Singapore, they are just as loud if not louder.

I spotted a Christian contingents hold placards like "God loves Everyone", "God loves Gay people", "Gay people are God's children too". During the march, there were constant messages countering the Christian's opposition. I heard that the weekend just before the Pride march, there was a Anti-Gay March organized by the Christians. During the stage performance time, it was mentioned that there were pastors and priests who claimed that the typhoons disaster that happened in southern Taiwan was God's punishment because of the gay people.

The school community


There is a big representation from the various schools and varsity.

I spotted National University of Taiwan (台大) and a few universities I could not name.

There is also a teachers' union.

What is heartening is that most of them are not gay. These are supporters of the GLBT community. During the concert time, there was a group of secondary school (straight) students who went on stage to support their gay teacher.

Others

	There were many GLBT support groups. This is the Pink Ribbon Foundation, which is a HIV awareness support group. They were giving out free condoms along the way.
	Here's someone joining the march in wheelchair
	There were a few political groups in the march. Here's Amnesty International. The "greenies" (Taiwan's pro-independence group) had a contingent as well.
	This guy who the words "Love Gay" on his back is a secondary school student with his classmates. As far as I can tell, he is straight.

The turnout at the march was huge. The organizers expected 20000, it was estimated that 25000 turned out. There were people from all over Taiwan and other countries. There were many people from Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. I spotted a number of familiar faces from Singapore (well, half the flight to Taipei was filled by gay people）and ran into a few friends as well.

I walked along side with the march, taking pictures along the way. My friend was all into it. He got rainbow stickers on his face, joined in the Water Boys contingents and marched with them and even take off his shirt. He thought I was being uptight for not marching together.

There was a concert after the march, which I found to be pretty boring. We left before the guest celebrity (梁静茹) came.

What I thought was missing from the whole event was a lack of community interaction. For example, if organizers could provide booths for the various groups to introduce themselves and let other people find out how to join. That could make things more interactive. The whole event was kind of like a gather and then disperse kind of activity.

In any case, I found it to be a very interesting experience.