LGBT Pride Month

It is believed that tolerance is the key ingredient of liberal democracy.

Although the majority Taiwanese vote against gay marriage in the referendum, to advance equality for LGBT people, on 17 May 2019, Taiwan became the first country in Asia to legally recognize same-sex marriage. The memorable date is also the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOTB). Some Taiwanese same-sex couples, they have organized a very special ceremony together to celebrate equality.

Source: BBC 

So far, there are only 28 countries in the world that allow same-sex couples to marry. They are:

Netherlands (2001), Belgium (2003), Canada, Spain (2005), South Africa (2006), Norway (2008), Sweden (2009), Iceland, Portugal, Argentina (2010), Denmark (2012), Uruguay, New Zealand, France and Brazil (2013), Finland, England and Wales (2014), Northern Ireland and Scotland (2017), Luxembourg, Greenland, Ireland, the United States (2015), Colombia (2016), Germany, Malta, Australia (2017), Taiwan (2019).

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The28 countries around the world where same-sex marriage is legal

Taiwan pride parade is started from 2003 and is held in every October. In the UK, June is LGBT Pride Month. To mark the occasion, York city centre has been decorated in rainbow colours.   

I still can remember when I lived in Brighton in 2016-2017, a Taiwan handsome boy told me that he chose to study a Master’s Degree on gender studies in Brighton as it is a gay-friendly city. Being a seaside resort on the south coast of England and fantastic nightlife city, Brighton has been one of the largest of the LGBT community in the United Kingdom over many years. In 2004, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) reported that Brighton was ‘the gay capital of Britain’ with 2,554 people in homosexual couples - or 13 for every 1,000 residents. Such a tolerant atmosphere is as what my ex-landlord, a local British resident, describes, ‘people in Brighton are more liberal’. 

Recent official statistics from ONS show that Britain's three top 'gay capitals' are London, Brighton and Manchester. Manchester is now titled as ‘the gay capital of the North’. In contrast, only an estimated 0.4% of people in North Yorkshire told researchers they were gay, lesbian or bisexual. Overall, there are 13 per cent of respondents in the UK identified as bisexual (7%), lesbian and gay (totally 6%) people, presenting a huge rise on the numbers released by the government in 2016. The survey also shows that younger people were significantly more inclined to regard themselves as ‘queer’. Maybe the increase of the LGB number is because 'coming out as gay or lesbian’ or observing LGBT community has become easier through sharing information in social media in the internet era, as a result, it encourages people to reveal the identity.

An American evangelist and publisher Dwight L. Moody says, ‘love makes all things easy.’ However, how easy it can be? An old movie Philadelphia has told us the truth that the mainstream society does not really accept homosexual love, which directly or indirectly refers to AIDS. in fact, ‘Equality in law, however, does not guarantee equality in everyday life’. Even though there is a growing trend of accepting and respecting LGBT community, many of them are still struggling for discrimination. The UK government continues to pay attention to issues such as ‘hate crime, higher inequalities in health satisfaction and outcomes, and discrimination, bullying and harassment in education and at work’ facing LGBT people (GEO, 2018, p.4). 

People celebrating gay pride in central York this summer

That is to say, passing a same-sex marriage bill on the basis of humanity, equality and justice is just the first step to recognize gay marriage. It is followed by a series of challenges imposed on the society - seeking the change of the majority of people's unacceptable perception of LGBT. 

Reference:

Government Equalities Office (GEO, 2018). National LGBT SURVEY RESEARCH RESPORT. [Online] Available at:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/721704/LGBT-survey-research-report.pdf[Access 16 June 2019].

6月是同性戀慶祝月

我們相信寬容是自由民主的關鍵因素。

雖然大多數台灣人在公民投票中反對同性戀婚姻，但為促進同性戀者的婚姻平權，2019年5月17日，台灣成為亞洲第一個合法承認同性婚姻的國家。這個歷史上令人難忘的日期也是反恐懼同性戀，跨性別恐懼症和雙性戀恐懼症國際日（IDAHOTB）。一些台灣同性伴侶，他們已舉辦了一個非常特別的儀式，共同慶祝平等。

到目前為止，世界上只有28個國家允許同性伴侶結婚。他們是：荷蘭（2001年），比利時（2003年），加拿大，西班牙（2005年），南非（2006年），挪威（2008年），瑞典（2009年），冰島，葡萄牙，阿根廷（2010年），丹麥（2012年），烏拉圭，新新西蘭，法國和巴西（2013年），芬蘭，英格蘭和威爾士（2014年），北愛爾蘭和蘇格蘭（2017年），盧森堡，格陵蘭，愛爾蘭，美國（2015年），哥倫比亞（2016年），德國，馬爾他，澳大利亞（ 2017），台灣（2019年）。

台灣同志遊行從2003年就開始，於每年10月舉行，而在英國，6月是LGBT遊行月，為慶祝此節日約克市中心以彩虹色裝飾著。

我還記得2016-2017年我住在布萊頓時，一位台灣同志戀帥哥告訴我，他選擇在布萊念性別研究碩士學位，因為這是一個同性戀友好城市。作為英格蘭南部海岸的海濱度假勝地和夢幻般的夜生活城市，布萊頓多年來一直是英國最大的LGBT社區之一。 在2004年，國家統計局（ONS）報告說，布萊頓是“英國同性戀之都”，同性戀伴侶中有2,554人 - 或每1000名居民中有13人。這種寬容的氛圍就像我的前房東，一位當地的英國居民, 所描述的那樣，“這裡的人比較自由派”。

英國國家統計局最近的官方統計數據則顯示，英國三大“同性戀首都”是倫敦，布萊頓和曼徹斯特。曼徹斯特現在被稱為“北方同性戀之都”。相比之下，北約克郡最少,只有0.4％的人告訴研究人員他們是男同性戀，女同性戀或雙性戀。總體而言，英國有13％的受訪者被確定為雙性戀者（7％），女同性戀者和同性戀者（共6％），2016年政府公佈的數字比以前大幅增加。調查還顯示，年輕人他們更傾向於將自己視為“同性戀者”。或許LGB數量的增加是因為現在透過在網路時代的社交媒體上分享消息,“以男同性戀或女同性戀出櫃”或看到LGBT社區變得更加容易，因此，它鼓勵了人們說出自己的性別身份。

一位美國傳道者和出版商Dwight L. Moody說，“愛讓事情變得簡單。”然而，它又能有多容易？一部老電影費城告訴我們，主流社會並不真正接受直接或間接涉及愛滋病的同性戀愛情。事實上，“法律上的平等並不能保證日常生活中的平等”。儘管接受和尊重LGBT社區的趨勢越來越明顯，但他們之中的許多人仍然在為歧視而苦苦掙扎,不管是公然或隱形的。所以英國政府繼續關注諸如“仇恨犯罪，健康滿意度和結果較多的不平等，以及LGBT人群面臨的教育和工作中的歧視，欺凌和騷擾”等問題（GEO，2018，第4頁）。

這也就是說，在人性，平等和正義的基礎上通過同性婚姻法案,只是承認同性婚姻的第一步;接下來是對社會施加了一系列挑戰 - 尋求去改變大多數人對LGBT的不可接受的看法。