Showing posts with label rallies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rallies. Show all posts

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Today's Rally: Pass The Damn Marriage Equality Bill Already!

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Or as I call it, the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Freedom, because it's really insane that this bill has been purposely delayed for so long, and insane-r that its homophobic detractors changed the language to allow three-way marriages, group marriages etc. in the hopes that that would kill the bill (assholes).

Especially when more than half of Taiwanese citizens support marriage equality.

So, LGBT rights activists, getting louder by the day in Taiwan, are getting fed up and starting to push for change.

And it's a good thing too. If Taiwan passes marriage equality, it will be the first country in Asia to do so. It will be a true thought leader, a truly modern and progressive society. (No, I don't believe it is possible to have a modern society without equal rights and that includes marriage equality). It will set itself apart in all the best ways. It will be a beacon of conscience in a sea of homophobia (not that the West doesn't have plenty of that too, of course). It will stand apart. Taiwan can, should...nay, must do this.

With Pride coming up on October 25th, this smaller rally had a more specific goal than "we're proud!" - it was to urge legislators to stop sitting on their hands and pass the damn bill already (it would be great if it didn't have all that 'group marriage' language in it, but I care so little about that that it doesn't change my opinion that the bill must be passed). The people support it. You know it's the right thing to do. You probably don't have any Bible-fundie "but it's my reliiiiiiigion to be homophobic, how dare you call me a bigot, God told me to think this way!" objections, so pass it.

I would estimate attendance was in the thousands - maybe not 10,000 as organizers had hoped, but pretty good for a small, poorly publicized (at least I only heard of it through a friend) rally aimed at the passage of a specific bill that, while the issue has broad support, is just not a "bring out the crowds" issue the way it is in the USA.

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One thing the protestors did was put symbolic locks on the gate of the Legislative Yuan, to symbolize one's conscience being locked by homophobia (the legislators' names and photos were chosen, obviously, based on who opposes the bill). Legislators were invited to come and unlock their locks - three did, apparently.

Wang Jin-ping's presence on this wall does not surprise me. He has no conscience, and he likely doesn't think this issue is important enough that he has to use political capital to support it against the general will of his party.

Nor does it surprise me that the strong majority of those against the bill are KMT - a reactionary, conservative party who at worst actively inhibits and at best is apathetic about social reform (that wasn't always the case - a lot of advances in women's rights were passed by then-KMT-affiliated President Lee Teng-hui at the turn of the millenium). No surprise at all that if you want to overturn homophobia, you need to kick out the KMT. I can't find the source right now but will keep looking - I have read that about 4/5 of KMT legislators don't support the bill, whereas 4/5 of the DPP do.

What does surprise me is that it seems Hsiao Bhi-khim's name is on there. Brendan and I both thought of her as an American-style progressive - I can't imagine what's going on here. If someone could enlighten me I'd appreciate it.

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Also, no rally is complete without a dog wearing a funny ribbon, sticker or outfit.

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I would love this Pride flag superimposed with Taiwan if they hadn't included the "Taiwanese" (read: ROC) flag - I don't care for it and its KMT associations, especially as the KMT is the main reason the bill has not yet been passed.

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Pan-green sentiments, such as Taiwanese independence, and LGBT rights tend to go hand-in-hand in Taiwan.

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I have this water bottle that I take to all the protests, which serves as a repository for the stickers they give out. The Chinese for the marriage equality one says "homophobia is unconstitutional". I'm not sure if that's strictly true, but that's not the point. (I'm also a fan of "I don't need sex because President Ma fucks me every day!", which is on the lower left).

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"A divorced Christian could marry a virgin - why can't a gay person?"

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I don't get this one - "even the unmarried queens all marry"?

The smaller sign says, I think, 需要恢復的是我們結婚的權利 or "the need to resume (the passage of the bill, I guess) "is our right to marry".

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More pan-green (and to be fair, pan-blue, but mostly for political convenience) sentiments intertwined with pride. This sign says that she hopes for real democracy in Hong Kong, and that we can have universal marriage rights in Taiwan.

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Thursday, January 12, 2012

I went to a KMT rally, and it made me feel dirty inside

So I "attended", if you can call it that, a KMT rally tonight. I don't have pictures - my apologies, but I still don't have a working camera, even an iPod or phone camera. Mine traveled up to the great Canon In The Sky to meet its maker last week, and my good one was stolen in Turkey.

I didn't do it because I like the KMT - you all know how much I hope they lose the upcoming election and how strongly I dislike them in general - but because it was quite literally right outside my apartment. Two days before an election if you look outside and see people joining an ever bigger cheering crowd backed by blasting music, if you're interested in politics you follow them. So I did.  

Despite having no pictures I thought I'd recap here.

First, I couldn't help but giggle at the following things:

- Ma Ying-jiu, again trying and failing to speak Taiwanese. I may not be a speaker of Taiwanese but I've been exposed to it enough that know bad Taiwanese when I hear it.

- The giant bouncy castle - I don't know what else to call it -  with "馬到成功" across the top. I have to admit that was quite clever - it means "instant success", and it's President Ma, and the rally was where we live in our apartment complex and I'm not sure I could have resisted that one either. But a bouncy castle? For serious? You're the president of a nation with a population that rivals Australia and you gave a speech under a freakin' bouncy castle? Pull that  **** in the US and you might get elected hall monitor of your nursery school but that's about it.

- The sound kept cutting out. I hope it was the evil eye I was sending his way, mwahahahaha!

- Ma Ying-jiu being introduced and escorted offstage by the music from Star Wars. Wow. Just...wow. Dear President Ma: you didn't destroy the Death Star. You haven't even managed to get China off Taiwan's back. You are not a Jedi. The Taiwanese know that these are, in fact, the droids they are looking for. I sincerely hope the Force is not with you. You don't get to walk onstage to the music from Star Wars. 

- I kept giving him and his KMT cronies dirty looks and sending bad "lose lose lose" vibes their way. Just as I started doing that, the sound started cutting out. Maybe the Force is with me! Maybe I just changed history with the power of my mind!* :) 

- They did that rally call and response thing. It went something like this:

KMT Cronies: 馬英九
Crowd: 當選!**
Me, quietly:(下台)
KMT Cronies: 國民黨
Crowd: 加油!
Me, quietly: (幹你娘)
KMT Cronies: 馬總統
Crowd: 加油!
Me, quietly: (去死)
KMT Cronies: 馬到
Crowd: 成功!
Me, quietly: 口甲賽 (read that in Taiwanese)
KMT Cronies: 投給
Crowd: 二號
Me, quietly: (一號)

I couldn't really be loud about it, seeing as I live in the deepest of the deep blue parts of one of the deepest blue districts in Taipei.  Those old veterans might've killed me. I'm not even sure if I'm using hyperbole.


*I am joking, but if you didn't realize that, the problem's with you, not me.
** I think this is what they said but it wasn't clear - the Star Wars music hadn't ended yet


Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Some Photos from the 8/30 Protest



Other Taiwan bloggers have already done a good job talking about and reporting on the anti-everything-that's-going-on-now rally last Saturday so I'll mostly just share a few pictures and make a few notes.

First of all, having been to quite a few rallies and protests - generally as a bystander although I'm not shy about discussing my own political views on Taiwan or the world in general - this one has to be the friendliest one I've ever seen.

Seriously. The 10/10 "A-bian Xia Tai" folks were so...serious. They either ignored or seemed wary of observers, and weren't quite sure what to make of foreign observers. Having attended university in Washington DC, obviously I've been to my share of protests there as well. Anti-World Bank? Check. Anti-Bush? Yep. Anti-Iraq war? You betcha. They all had similar atmospheres.

This one was different. People were outgoing and genuinely happy to see foreigners there. I suppose, it helped that I was wearing a bright green t-shirt. People shook my hand just for caring enough to show up. People took the time to tell me what they thought - some more exuberantly than others. Some, for the record, acted as though they'd chewed one too many betel nuts. The crowd was a lot older - there were kids and lots of little dogs, but the bent was definitely in favor of the senior citizen.

People smiled. I haven't been to such a smiley protest...well, ever. I also noticed that I couldn't understand most of what was going on, as it was all in Taiwanese. Not all of it...but enough that I was a bit lost. The only Chinese I heard were a few of the speakers on the main stage (and not always then) and from the many people who went out of their way to talk to me.

Water was free, and the younger set went out of their way to be courteous to the seniors who ruled the streets. Someone ran up and gave me a free keychain because "You understand how we love Taiwan!"

228 Peace Park was practically overrun with old folks, which meant it was...well, just like 228 Park on any other day.

Near the Chinese-style gate in front of the Presidential building - which I'm sorry, looks like an old-timey European train station, it really does - there was a fairly large shrine dedicated to the activists who died under the KMT's former dictatorship.

(I also learned that the "jiu" in "Ma Ying Jiu" sounds like "gou" in Taiwanese, so his name can carry the connotation of a dog in that language. Huh. The Things You Learn.)

I can't estimate the attendance, and people say that the 10/10/06 anti-Chen protest was bigger, but this one sure felt as big.

Frankly, anyone who says that the Taiwanese don't want independence really should have seen this rally. If they could draw such a big crowd in a blue-leaning city like Taipei, then obviously lots of people do not consider themselves Chinese.

Finally, someone told me today that the signs brandished were in English (and German) because the organizers hoped for coverage on CNN. I didn't see any international news coverage, though.