Colorful rainbow flags and protest banners: tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Taipei on Saturday to demonstrate for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people – LGBT for short. According to the organizers, a total of 120,000 people attended Taiwan Pride, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year and is said to be the largest in all of East Asia.
In 2020, the event had to be held on a smaller scale due to the pandemic restrictions, and in 2021 it was even completely moved to the Internet. Only a few weeks ago, Taiwan significantly relaxed its corona measures. On October 13th, the island state completely lifted its quarantine obligation for people entering the country from abroad.
In 2019, Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage. On Saturday, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen praised the progress the society has made on the rights of sexual minorities on Facebook. According to Tsai, 20 years ago it was hard to imagine that Taiwan would become the first Asian country to recognize same-sex marriage.
