《TAIPEI TIMES》 Group urges people to vote for gay-friendly candidates

By Peng Wan-hsin and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan yesterday said that it would send educational materials about the LGBT community to politicians who have made inappropriate remarks about it before, while calling on voters to cast their ballots for gay-friendly candidates in the Jan. 11 presidential and legislative elections.

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The coalition, composed of five gender equality groups, told a news conference in the Legislative Yuan in Taipei that it has posted guidelines for “rainbow voters” on PrideWatch, a Web site that records remarks made by presidential and legislative candidates, and how they voted in the same-sex marriage bill in May.

PrideWatch — launched by the Lobby Alliance for LGBT Human Rights — was established five years ago, alliance CEO Cindy Su （蘇珊） said, adding that it has documented what candidates have said and how they voted to hold these public figures accountable.

Political candidates should demonstrate consistency in their speech and actions, instead of switching sides when it favors them, Su said.

The alliance hopes people do not vote for candidates who do not even support basic human rights, Su added.

After the last presidential and legislative elections in 2016, lawmakers who opposed LGBT rights have decreased from 24 to 12, and hopefully will drop further after next year’s elections, she said.

There would be 1.18 million first-time voters and nearly 5 million voters aged 20 to 35 in next year’s elections, Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy secretary-general Chang Yu-meng （張育萌） said.

The younger generation would hold candidates to more rigorous standards, especially in relation to issues such as gender and marriage equality, Chang added.

Candidates should explicitly express their opinions on such issues rather than sidestep them, and ballots should be cast carefully as they will shape the nation’s future, Chang said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES