22 Jan 2014

Members of Taiwan’s Committee for Gender Equality Disputed by The Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association

The Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association (TTHA) and other LGBT NGOs have called upon the Ministry of Education to rethink the members of the Committee for Gender Equality, as it contains members who have spoken out against homosexuality.

TTHA and other NGOs have called into question the members of the Committee for Gender Equality after a prelimanry investigation by the Department of Student Affairs and Special Education found that some members had rejected the draft bill for diverse family formation.


TTHA complain that some of the members have made discriminatory remarks in the past and some of them actively spoken out against gay adoption.

TTHA has been promoting gender equality education in Taiwan. They want the inclusion of gay rights and sexual orientation topics in the new curriculum for elementary and junior high school. It believes that the Committee of Gender Equality can help the inclusion of this sort of education in schools. 

However, inclusion of sexual orientation-related topics in the curriculum have been met with opposition, and TTHA and other gender and gay rights advocacy groups recently have had to file a slander suit against a group that stated that the gender equality curriculum would promote "sexual openness" and same-sex marriage. 

The end of 2013 saw the topic of gay marriage being discussed across the country. Homosexual equivalency advocates called on the Taiwanese authorities to allow homosexual people to legally marry and adopt children. The request was profound since the family unit holds great significance in Taiwanese culture.