2014 gay parade report

Harry Chen
From my observation of this years Taipei Gay parade and researching, I found some
interesting phenomenon which constructs the main ideology in gay community.
1. The discrimination against the minorities in LGBTQ community.
Its not surprising to hear some conservative opinions on those most discriminated
groups (e.g. SM, transgender, drag queen) among LGBT community, and it seems
getting more and more severe these couple years due to the movement of marriage
equality. In one of the parades speech, the representative of BDSM group
even claimed that she had been told that their group wasnt welcomed in this
years gay parade. its hard for me to believe the fact which after so many years
striking for sexual liberation and equality, we seems not going forward. This makes
also me wonder that is our society really becoming more liberal, more open minded?
or is gay community becoming more conservative, trying to become normal?
2. The diversity in the group
Although there had been a lot of different opinion toward gayness and queerness, I
was glad to still find the diversity in gay community and see a lot of different social
movement groups giving speech in the gay parade (e.g. , ,
). Moreover, in the parades speeches, we have chance to hear the
different groups appeal, not only the discourse in favor of same-sex marriage but
others.
3. Gay hierarchy in the community
In this years gay parade, I found what Bersani says in his article is the rectum a
grave - the gay hierarchy. It seems that among the gay community your appearance,
muscle, masculinity are the crucial part which decide your happiness. This
phenomenon seems to impose some kind of aesthetic standard on each person in each
groups and sometimes form minor groups within it (e.g. twink, bear, queen etc)
Moreover, if you share the same aesthetic standards you are more than likely to be
surrounding by the same kind of people.