Thousands march in Taiwan's 15th Pride parade

It's Taiwan's first Pride parade since a court ruled that same-sex couples should have the right to marry.

The queer float cruising along 100,00 people who took part at Taipei 2017 LGBT Pride Parade, possibly the largest in Asia. Source: LightRocket (Photo by Alberto Buzzola/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Tens of thousands of people have marched in Taiwan’s 15^th annual LGBT+ Pride parade—just months after the Constitutional Court ruled that same-sex couples should have the right to marry.

It’s estimated that 123,000 people marched down Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei, including LGBT+ groups from the United States, Japan and South Korea.

While the event was a celebratory occasion, the LGBT+ community has called on the government to speed up the process of amending Taiwan’s existing marriage law. The court has given the Legislative Yuan two years to pass the new legislation.

Joseph Wu—who has been with his partner for six years—told AFP that “a lot of people cannot afford to wait for two years”.

"We just want the same things heterosexual couples have. We also do our military service, we pay the same taxes, so why can't we have the same thing?" he said.

Another parade attendee—29-year-old Hino Chen—added: "We are the same. We also want to start our own families”.

Premier William Lai wrote on his Facebook page yesterday that the marriage equality bill would be introduced soon.

“We will seek the greatest consensus of society in the most active way,” he wrote.

“I support the idea that people who love each other should have the right to be together,” Lai wrote.

Taiwan is expected to become the first place in Asia to legalise gay marriage and is being praised for its progressive attitude towards LGBT+ rights.

Benny Chan travelled from Hong Kong to take part in the Pride parade and freely express his identity.

“Hong Kong is more conservative, maybe because of China's influence," the 35-year-old told AFP.

"Only when I'm in Taiwan can I dress like this and not be afraid to express myself."

Make love, not war

Organisers used the event as an opportunity to promote sex education with the parade’s theme encouraging the community to ‘Make Love, Not War — Sex Ed is the Way to Go’.

“Taiwan LGBT Pride is always bold with their theme, they don’t ever go the cautious conservative route," blogger Stanley Kuo wrote. 

Previous themes have included 'Fun together — say no to fake friendliness, honour diversity like you mean it' and 'No age limit — free the closets, own your youth!'