All rainbow roads lead to Taipei. That is: If you’re allowed to head there at all due to Covid-19 travel restrictions.
On June 28, Taiwan will hold the world’s only physical LGBTQIA Pride parade for 2020’s Pride month of June.
This year marks the 50th year since the first LGBTQIA Pride march was held in Chicago in the US in 1970. But celebrations are on hold because of the need to be physically distant to other people to curb the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes Covid-19. Already, 475 Pride events across the world have been canceled and/or delayed.
In a statement, Taiwan Gay Sport Association (TSGA) – the organizer of Taipei’s event – stated that “all is not lost” since “Taiwan is fortunate to (be) one of the very few countries in the world that never needed a lockdown, and has not had a single local case in over two months.” And so “to celebrate that fact and to honor our global (LGBTQIA) family… we will host the world’s only physical LGBTQIA Pride parade during Pride month 2020.”
Themed “Taiwan Pride March for the World!”, the event will be streamed live on TSGA’s Facebook event page.
Taiwan’s numerous pro-LGBTQIA moves have been making the news. It is the first in Asia, for instance, to legalize marriage equality. Its law, however, only: 1. allows same-sex marriages between Taiwanese, or 2. with foreigners whose countries recognize same-sex marriage.
Taiwan also permits adoption of children biologically related to at least one of the same-sex pair.
Related to this, it eyes to profit from the pro-LGBTQIA efforts – e.g. by “selling” mementos to foreign LGBTQIA couples, even if it does not necessarily legally recognize some of these relationships.
There are also members of its LGBTQIA community who lament the direction of Pride there – e.g. in 2015, during Taiwan’s Pride, some members of Taiwan’s LGBTQIA community lamented the “hijacking” of an LGBTQI event because of the lack of opportunity to highlight “non-mainstream LGBTQI issues.”
LGBTQIA activist 徐豪謙, for one, noted at that time that “people only talk about the politically correct and popular issue of same-sex marriage, as if we don’t have other issues to face.”
Beyond the June parade, Taiwan is also slated to host Taiwan Pride 2020 on October 31, and people may join… again, pending travel restrictions.
