Taiwan is now officially the gay centre of Asia
We knew it back in 2016 when we chose Taipei to be the setting for Elska Magazine's first issue made in Asia. We'd heard good things about the liveliness of the queer community, of the pro-LGBTQ legal and political climate, and of the socially accepting culture as a whole. But now with the announcement from the Taipei City Government that same sex marriages can be booked, Taipei is now officially the gay capital and Taiwan the gay centre of Asia.
The announcement comes one month ahead of the government's plan to legalise same sex marriage, following its ruling on 24th May 2017 that to deny equal marriage was unconstitutional. Taiwan is the first country in all of Asia to go so far to equalise LGBTQ rights. The only country to come close to this level of rights requires a widening of most people's perceptions of what constitutes Asian geography — Israel. But even there same-sex marriage is only recognised yet not permitted to be performed within its borders, i.e. Israeli citizens can marry abroad and have their union recognised upon returning to the country, but they cannot marry within the country. (We've also done an issue of Elska in Israel by the way, in cosmopolitan and multicultural Haifa.)
Same-sex marriage is often seen as the epitome of LGBTQ rights. It's often part of the latest stages of rights granting, following the decriminalisation of homosexual sexual activity, anti-discrimination protections, the right for transgender people to receive recognition of official documentary gender change, and the ability of same-sex couples to adopt (this arguably is actually the 'final' stage). Currently no country in Asia recognises all of these rights, not even Taiwan, not yet anyway. However there seems to be a sweep towards progress across the continent, including India's long-awaited decriminalisation of homosexuality which happened in 2018. (We also did an issue there, in Mumbai.)
Why would Taiwan and Israel be the most progressive countries in Asia? At first glance they don't appear to have much in common, at least not culturally. Perhaps its their youth that is their biggest attribute in common — Taiwan was established in 1912 and Israel in 1948. Perhaps this newness extends to a modern way of thinking, or perhaps it means that their identities have had less time to be established.
For a country to forge its identity, it needs to ask itself what kind of nation it wants to be. Much of the population of modern Israel, and certainly its ruling elite, come from Europe or North America, many being even first or second generation immigrants to the land. With this migration they bring perhaps a Western identity; therefore it makes sense that their attitudes toward homosexuality be more in line with countries like Germany, the USA, France, the UK, and other places where Jewish communities migrated from. For Taiwan, whereby the majority population is Han Chinese, it is crucial for them to forge an identity that is not simply Chinese in order to maintain its separation from the POC (mainland China).
If LGBTQ rights are some side-effect of another goal, then so be it. I'm sure that same sex marriage came to the UK in part as the Conservative Party's attempt to widen its voter base, but I'm not complaining. Let's enjoy our rights but remember to not take them for granted. We queer people are and will always be a minority, and we need to make certain that we are seen and heard.
Liam Campbell is editor and chief photographer of Elska Magazine, a project devoted to making gay bodies seen and queer voices heard around the world.
