Queer activism in Taiwan: An emergent rainbow coalition from the assemblage perspective

Abstract

A social movement for sexual and gender minorities (the Movement) emerged in Taiwan around 1990s since the abolition of Martial Law in 1987. This paper, drawing from Deleuze's assemblage theory, looks at how activists negotiate and compete over constructing the discourses of sexual rights and citizenship in a context of democratic transition.Along with the 'Renaissance' of conservatism recently, which combines Confucianism and Christianity, the Movement has been thus de-and re-territorialise in response, and such a process has made a rainbow coalition -a larger composition of assemblage rather than simply a descriptor -observable. Gaining a greater leverage and influence on society, the coalition, based on a pursuit of selfdetermination and self-liberation, has inversely provided soil for a cosmopolitan identity of Taiwaneseness to grow.

Transnational queer sociological analysis of sexual identity and civic‐political activism in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China

“…Finally, the 2000s saw the emergence of queer activism, inspired by the rise of the sexual citizenship and LGBTQ political movements in the West, such as International Day Against Homophobia or IDAHO (2005–), the Pride Parade (2008–), and Pink Dot (2012–) in Hong Kong; LGBT Pride (2003–) in Taiwan; and Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays or PFLAG (2008) in China (Kong, Lau and Hui ). Transnational Christian/evangelical groups in Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore are the main opposing force to the tongzhi movement in Hong Kong (Wong ) and Taiwan (Ho ; Lee ), whereas in mainland China it is the government (Engebretsen and Schroeder ). This brief historical analysis contextualizes the generalized but differential Western influences impinging upon each locale, as well as the inter‐influences among the three.…”

“…patriarchal, homophobic). Similarly, Taiwanese society also has a tendency to include only guai bao bao (‘good gays’) in their culture by excluding such ‘dangerous’ or dissident queers as HIV carriers, sex workers, chemsex players and BDSM practitioners (Lee ). Externally, the President Tsai Ing‐wen and some Taiwanese politicians have used Taiwan’s support for the tongzhi community (e.g.…”

Liberal–conservative dimension of moral concerns underlying political faction formation in Taiwan

“…The aforementioned results elucidate the basis underlying the link between Taiwan independence and the LGBT movement. Since the 1990s, the LGBT movement in Taiwan has progressed in parallel with the democratization process, sharing in the pursuits of self-liberalization and self-determination (P.-H. Lee, 2017). This has resulted in a coalition with the Taiwan independence movement and an overlapping group of supporters.…”

Lesbian and Gay Parents, Heterosexual Kinship, and Queer Dreams: Making Families in Twenty-First Century Taiwan

“…Even as I write this article, portions of it are becoming social history (a fact I address more fully below). Activists are working to create change across many levels of society, including, but not limited to, public education, political visibility, legal rights and reforms, and more radical cultural change (see Lee 2017 for an analysis of Taiwan's sex rights movement and the interplay of assimilationist and liberationist currents within it). Taiwan is often lauded as a uniquely "gay-friendly" destination, having made more strides toward inclusivity than many other countries (e.g., Leach 2012).…”