What I learned about Dallas by visiting Taipei, Taiwan. Insights for the LGBT
Will be back to reporting developments here in Dallas, but also what I could see clearly in Dallas since I was in Taipei.
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We live in a cesspool of Christian homophobia
I am still jet lagged, and recovering from traveling about 24 hours continually and unpacking things and reading weeks of mail. But I want to get started sharing what I learned about Dallas by visiting Taipei.
Whole worlds of wonder and religious devotion that didn’t involve hating Gay people.
It is a society that is 5% Christian and the other religions are focused on themselves. They aren’t exclusionary. They aren’t focused on denouncing other religions. They sometimes bring other religions into the temple. So there would be Gods from different religions and the Buddha.
I did many photos of this cross-walk in Ximen district in Taipei of people photographing friends on the crosswalk. Families, straight couples, constantly came to be photographed on this iconic site in the tourist/Gay district of Taipei. They would waited inline until the prior group or couple or family finished their photos. They thought the Pride flag was cool and it was the symbol of the Ximen district and straight people thought it was cool to be seen being photographed on it. What do we have in Dallas?
For the Pride Parade they had one they had one painted in front of Taipei City Hall. (Not to be confused with the one in Ximen District above.)
Kelley Neidirt and Other Christian homophobes don’t shape the culture of Taipei.
These cakes and soap were for sale on the streets of Ximen district and elsewhere. No one is having a fit about it. They have a sense of humor.
Comparing the progress of Dallas with the progress of Taipei
I moved to Dallas in 1987, previously I had lived in the San Francisco Bay area and new many Taiwanese engineer co-workers.
In Taiwan martial law was eliminated in 1987. The society was not friendly to Gays.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Name_Engraved_Herein
This is a link to “Crystal Boys.” I couldn’t bear watching the entire thing. It was Gay life in Taiwan in the 1970s. This is the playlist for the series on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFqzMG5lsdx50c7Tb_YvQcxqSaQeS_YgR
Now it is a showcase for Gay rights for Asia.
Though Taipei was far behind Dallas in 1987, it is now in 2023 far ahead of Dallas.
The Pride event is in the center of town.
It isn’t off somewhere which requires you to pay money to attend. It is on the streets. That is the iconic Taipai 101 building to the left. It is a skyscraper shaped like bamboo.
I video captured the entire parade and will be uploading it to YouTube.
As I reflect on Taipei and what I saw, I could see how in Dallas we have come to accept a world permeated with Christian hatred against us and have come to accomodate ourselves to it. I continue to have new perceptions about Dallas as I think about my experience in Taipei.
It also made me realize that we need to adopt a serious militant approach to fight homophobia in Dallas.