High school in Taiwan allows boys to wear skirts

[TotallyOz]

I loved reading this story as it says a lot about the acceptance of gays in the country.

https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/taiwan-high-school-becomes-first-to-allow-boys-to-wear-skirts/#gs.rk9igi

[PeterRS]

What I find so strange is that LGBT acceptance in Taiwan has happened so quickly. After all it was under decades of martial law until only 32 years ago. During martial law there were no human rights, no right to free speech, no freedom of expression and courts were military courts. Since then it has developed strong political parties, an independent and vociferous media and an independent judiciary. (And the boys are amongst the most beautiful in Asia!) How did it get it right when so many other Asan countries have not?

[spoon]

Believe it or not, many countries are getting there, the people are, not the government unfortunately. Religions being one of the main reason, mainly being used by political party to gain support. Though honestly it is more of a political move or rather inaction, as the politician still thinks the majority of the people are not accepting lgbt community, so they rather not fix whats not broken. Once they see the majority of the people shows acceptance towards lgbt, change in government can happen very quickly. Taiwan first held the gay pride in 2003 and it took them 16 years to legalize same sex marriage. 

To be fair, many lgbt in asian country are still closeted, and prefer to be so due to so many reasons. Gay activists here in malaysia are still fighting against discrimination, physical abuse and draconian laws that criminalized lgbtq. That being said, we have celebrities, instafamous, models that are crossdressing, trans, and looked very gay and have no issues with the police here.

 

[PeterRS]

I think I am right in saying the Muslim religion believes a lot of what is written in the Old Testament. That no doubt includes  the verses in Leviticus which call for death between men who lie with other men. I am sure there are other references but I do not know where. Strangely, as far as I know, nowhere in the Quran is homosexuality referred to as a similar sin. This was an added extra in the hadith, the alleged sayings of the Prophet Mohammed and forming part of Islamic tradition some time after his death. The point being that, as spoon points out,  progress in LGBT rights is unlikely to occur in countries with a large Islamic population and a bunch of evangelical Christians believing the same thing.

But it strikes me that it is not only religion. The British are also very much to blame. When England passed its anti-sodomy law in the 1860s, all its colonial possessions incorporated the same law. And then the British departed leaving the law on all those statue books when England itself would change the law in the 1960s. Section 377A remains law in Singapore and Malaysia.and the reason usually trotted out is, as spoon says, those in power state the public would not accept a change. 
Strangely the same seemed to be true in Hong Kong where successive governments claimed the 95% Chinese community would not accept a change in the law. Ironically it was Hong Kongs return to China that necessitated a sort of Bill of Rights for the city acceptable to the international community. So the law was changed almost 30 years ago. Did the Chinese population rise up? Were there demonstrations and calls for resignations? Apparently not a cheep! So much for that little political ploy.