October 31-November 6, 2011
Headline News
Pro-gay church in Taiwan urges churches to stop discrimination at gay pride parade
Reported by Chiou Kuo-rong
Written by Sandy Tsai
The 9th annual Taiwan Gay Pride Parade, held on October 29th, 2011, started from Ketagalan Boulevard with a huge rainbow flag held by the 30 people leading the parade. The theme of this year’s parade is “ LGBT Fight Back, Discrimination Get Out!” Just like last year, Tong-Kwang Light House Presbyterian Church actively participated in the parade and walked behind the rainbow flag with the troop.
Tong-Kwang Light House Presbyterian Church also actively took part in the preparation of the parade and was in charge of administrative affairs. To ensure that the flyers containing the idea of appealing for equal rights for gays was delivered to Ketagalan Boulevard on time, the church gathered dozens of church members the night before to pack them ahead of time. Da-wei Chen, the elder in charge of the evangelism department of the church, said that all the participants were fully devoted to this task.
By taking part in this parade, the church not only hopes to fight for gay rights but also spread the idea that “God loves gays.” With that in mind, Tong-Kwang church also allotted special funds to design pink balloons in the shape of a heart inscribed with the words “Love God Belief Truth”.
When church members held these balloons and walked in the front of the parade, the pink balloons really created an atmosphere of warmth; therefore, in return, people on the streets welcomed them by clapping and cheering.
This year, the different perspectives on gay issue between society and churches has made headline news several times. True Love Alliance, Christian association against homosexuality, successfully convinced some legislators to require the Ministry of Education to remove chapters regarding gay education from elementary and junior high school textbooks. Because of this incident, gay supporters responded that what the alliance had said about gays was totally twisted and also accused the alliance of discrimination against gays. As conflict and debate surged, a lot of public hearings were held and both sides sent people to defend their views at these hearings and in the media.
A climactic turn ensued when associations that support equal rights for gays felt they were maligned by True Love Alliance’s efforts to twist gay education and gender equity education and decided to fight back. These associations gathered related evidence to sue the Alliance of using non-existent evidence to cloud the public’s judgment. This incident partly inspired this year’s theme.
In the past 2 years, Tong-Kwang Light House Presbyterian Church has seen the annual gay pride parade as an important mission. During the parade, a representative from the church nicknamed Abraham strongly emphasized that people should not push away gay peoples while spreading the idea of God loves people. Gays are also human; they need to be respected and encouraged, “Abraham” said to every participant. “Please remember, God the creator loves every one of us; and also remember, we are all here together, we are not alone.”
On the other hand, the night before the parade, Hsin Tien Covenant Church senior pastor Chang Mao-song appealed to society oppose homosexual behavior. He mentioned that being gay is just like having sexual relations outside of marriage. He urged the government not to include multi-sex orientation sections in elementary school education textbooks; otherwise, it will be the prelude of legalizing relationships such as incest, bestiality, pedophilia, and adultery.
