Taipei - Taiwan will hold a government-funded gay carnival
this weekend and Asia's largest gay pride march on October 13, the
Taipei City Government and gay rights groups said on Monday.
The carnival will be held this weekend with 12 Taiwan and
foreign gay films being shown at the Honglou Theatre in central
Taipei, Jason Yeh, a city official, told a news conference.
'The theme of this year's gay carnival is Teach You How to Watch a
Gay Film. We want the public to watch gay films in a relaxed
atmosphere so that they can understand gay-related issues,' he said.
The carnival, in its 8th year, will be followed by the Gay Pride
March, now the largest in Asia, the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline told
Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Tongzhi, comrade, is the euphemism for homosexuals in Asia.
'We expect to mobilize 10,000 people to take part in the march
which will proceed through Taipei's main streets. During the march,
the marchers will hold up coloured cardboards to form a human rainbow
flag,' Wu Hsu-liang, the hotline's spokesman, said, referring to the
six-colour flag symbolizing gay and lesbian pride.
'Gay groups from Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong will participate
in the march. There will also be individual homosexuals from other
countries attending the march,' he said.
Tolerance for homosexuals has grown in recent years in Taiwan,
but Taiwan gays and lesbians are still fighting for equal rights,
especially the right to get married.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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