Taiwan LGBT March 2018 Theme and Spirit

Image Source:2018 Taiwan LGBT Parade Alliance official website

Sexuality is your choice. Everyone 18 Vote Rainbow

Discussion:

If the school had taught me about gender ethics, wouldn't I have been bullied again?

If the supervisor had learned what gender identity is, would I be able to stop wearing dresses?

If the general public can really understand the difference, will I no longer have to be afraid of being judged and can live my life like an ordinary person?

When can we stop having these what-ifs?

Last year, Taiwan's gay and lesbian marchers took to the streets in the hope that the society would attach importance to gender equality education for sexual/gender diversity, so that the concept of seeing diversity and understanding differences could be implemented in everyone's mind. But now, a year later, the anti-gay referendum (i.e., the Family Friendly Referendum) intends to use the ballot to open up another battlefield, trying to make "gay education" disappear from sex education in schools! So, while lamenting the confusion of pseudo-friendly "age-appropriate sex education," the LGBTQ decided to bring up again this year an issue that needs continued attention - the need for sex education for all.

"Education for Gender Equality" refers to education to recognize and understand gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender temperament, and the cultural differences of LGBTIQA-sexually diverse communities, in order to eliminate bullying and oppression due to discrimination and to promote substantive equality of gender status.

Simply put, the focus of sexuality education is to enable us to learn to see and understand different genders, gender temperaments, sexual orientations, and other "knowledge". When we learn to understand others with an open mind, we will have the opportunity to see the existence of gender diversity; when we really get to know our friends in the gender diversity community in our lives, there will be no more exclusion and discrimination of "not my race". When the whole sexually diverse community can live freely, "I have many gay friends" - is the most true and warm sentence.

Unfortunately, gender equality education is in a very precarious position. "The Gender Equality Education Act only requires a minimum of four hours per semester, and LGBT education, which teaches about LGBT people, takes up even less time. However, the third anti-LGBT referendum case ignores the professional curriculum of the sexuality education syllabus, and is using the "age-appropriate" argument to brainwash parents, trying to use votes to erase the real existence of LGBT lives. Just because of the pressure from parents or legislators from outside schools, students are immediately deprived of another possibility to learn about the world. If sex education is only included as an appendix in the future 12-year national education curriculum, then it will be easier for parents and schools to influence the curriculum content in textbooks, and the implementation of sex education will be more difficult in the future.

What is more relevant to you and me is that sex education in school is only the beginning of our learning "knowledge"; after we leave the society, the workplace, family and interpersonal relationship are the issues we need to face for a long time. However, after we leave school, there is no channel for us to learn and receive knowledge or information about sex education, which is why parents and teachers do not know how to teach their children; and supervisors and colleagues in the workplace naturally find it difficult to understand and respect people who are different from them. The same kind of discrimination and oppression will be experienced by heterosexual friends. Therefore, people of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and temperaments actually need sex education.

When we use it to defeat discrimination and save more injured partners, the higher the success rate of passing the hurdles; and the current situation is that our sex education is in a state of congenital deficiency and congenital dysfunction, but the anti-gay referendum at the end of the year is eyeing to exclude gay education from sex education. The most direct thing we can do now is to call on our friends and family to participate in the referendum, and please note that those who are 18 and under 20 years old cannot vote in the election, but they can vote in the referendum. Therefore, if you or your friends or relatives happen to be 18 years old on November 24, please remind them to go back to their hometown and vote for the rainbow!

This year, besides the referendum, we hope that those of you who are reading this article will tell or share your own life stories or experiences and feelings of discrimination in your life when you are ready to do so, because the "differences" of each of us are the best teaching materials for sex education. When we can let others see it, we can increase the possibility of mutual understanding; and every year, when we walk on the street, we also want to let more people see the diversity and differences and the possibility of being ourselves. We invite you and me to share our stories and tell our lives in our own way, and we also invite our friends who do not have the strength to do so to take to the streets and use our steps to step on the rainbow road without discrimination in the future!

When discrimination is consistently eliminated, it can reduce if;

But we won't have that day until we step out. (Quoted from 2018 LGBT Pride Parade Taiwan LGBT Parade Alliance website)

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(Quoted from the official website of Taiwan Gay and Lesbian March)