taiwan has had marriage equality since 2019. on saturday taipei police raided a gay bar and took 51 people in. pride is in four weeks. we're sorry, what?
via Reuters, the Liberty Times and United Daily News, with follow-up from Focus Taiwan
"This city used to claim that it was queer friendly."
That is Kang Yang, one of the protesters who marched on a Taipei police station on Sunday afternoon, Reuters reports, a day after officers raided a gay bar and took 51 of its customers in for questioning. In Taipei. The city with the biggest Pride in East Asia. The capital of the first place in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage.
what happened at commander d
The bar is Commander D, on Kaifeng Street in the Ximending nightlife district. United Daily News describes it as a BDSM gay bar. Police from the Wanhua precinct went in on Saturday, Oct. 3, with a search warrant from the Taipei District Prosecutors Office, according to the Liberty Times and UDN.
Precinct spokesperson Chen Yu-cheng told Reuters the warrant was for suspected "offences against public morality." The 51 customers were suspected of violating a law against "wantonly exposing one's naked body or presenting a lascivious posture in a public place or publicly accessible place." The Liberty Times identifies that as Article 83 of Taiwan's Social Order Maintenance Act, and reports the 51 were cited under it. The owner was arrested; UDN says he was referred to prosecutors on suspicion of facilitating obscenity. Police told the Liberty Times they had received repeated complaints about the bar.
"They raided the place violently. It was very scary," a man who was detained, identified only by the family name Wen, told Reuters.
the wheelchair remark
The detail that made it worse: an officer asked a customer in a wheelchair, who was in the toilet, how disabled people "manage to have sex in there," according to a video of the raid that circulated on social media, Reuters reports. Police first denied anything of the kind, the Liberty Times and UDN reported on Saturday night.
By Monday the denial was gone. City police commissioner Lin Yen-tien disciplined six officers, Focus Taiwan reports: four received two reprimands each for inappropriate language during the raid, the lead investigator at the scene got a demerit for not stopping the remarks, and the Wanhua precinct chief asked for, and got, two reprimands for inadequate supervision. Lin maintained the raid itself was lawful, carried out under a court warrant after 13 complaints.
That is a lot of discipline for remarks the department said on Saturday were never made, and none at all for a Saturday that ended with 51 people cited for being in a gay bar.
how taipei answered
The precinct chief, who did not give his name, came out briefly. "We respect the culture of a pluralistic society and will protect the rights of every citizen," he said, while protesters shouted over him, per Reuters.
The Liberty Times reports the rally gathered at the Red House with three demands: an explanation and apology from the precinct, an explanation from Taipei police of why LGBTQ venues were targeted, and a response from the mayor. Some asked whether the city was repeating the Nong'an Street incident, a 2004 police raid on a gay party that the community has not forgotten. Ten LGBTQ groups, including the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association, issued a joint statement Sunday accusing the city, SETN reports, of cashing in on gay people with one hand and suppressing them with the other.
Mayor Chiang Wan-an, of the opposition Kuomintang, has attended Taipei Pride before and faces an election next month, Reuters notes. He told the Liberty Times that police acted lawfully, but that if anything improper happened, the department must immediately review it and explain itself.
Reuters counted about 100 protesters on Sunday; Focus Taiwan put it at about 500. On Monday Chiang said he "deeply regretted" the "improper conduct" by police and that Taipei remains "an inclusive and friendly city," per Reuters; Focus Taiwan reports he apologized and promised stronger diversity training. His challenger in next month's election, Puma Shen, called for scrutiny of how police enforce the law. The Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights, in a joint statement with other groups, said this was "not a case of individual officers misspeaking or a single instance of excessive enforcement, but the resurfacing of long-standing homophobia, discrimination and abuse of power within the police enforcement system."
Taiwan LGBT+ Pride is on Oct. 31, at City Hall, under the theme "Our Voices, Our Journey." The city has four weeks to work out which voice it wants to use. We covered a very different kind of state raid on queer spaces when Turkey went after LGBTI associations last month. Taipei is not Ankara, and that is exactly why Saturday stung.
