Fridae

In what's believed to be the first case of its kind, the owner of a gay bookstore in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei - who has been charged with selling erotic gay magazines - has filed a petition the court to have a homosexual judge preside over the trial and to invite 100 homosexuals to review the magazines to consider whether the contents are indecent, reported the Taipei Times.

Taipei police raided Gin Gin's on Aug. 25 last year and confiscated over 500 erotic gay magazines including His, a Taiwanese magazine that features frontal nudity as well as some that were legally published in Hong Kong.

Lai Jeng-jer, its owner, has been charged with offences against morals and the prosecutor has requested for a simplified judgment. (A simplified judgment is proposed by the prosecutor when the accused has committed only a minor crime but there is already sufficient evidence to convict the offender.)

Lai highlighted that many erotic heterosexual magazines had more provocative content than the confiscated gay magazines and the police should not treat homosexual ones differently from heterosexual ones.

He had also pointed out that magazines like His have been on sale in Eslite, a mainstream bookstore chain; and the magazines his shop had on display are always wrapped and marked with clear warning on the wrapper hence unknowing customers will not chance on them if they weren't looking for the material.

To get "a fair trial," Lai has on Tuesday appealed to "heterosexual judges to avoid the case" and filed a petition to have a gay judge preside over the case and has requested to have a panel of 100 gay men review the magazines to consider whether the contents are indecent.

"Taiwan is a place where people don't know very much about homosexuals and where there is considerable discrimination against homosexuals."

"The definition of indecency may vary from person to person, and a homosexual male's perception of indecency cannot be arbitrated by a heterosexual male, so we would like to have 100 homosexual males to review the magazines and see if they consider the content indecent," Lai said in the Times.