Students in Taiwan are protesting against gender equality classes
Students at a Taiwan university have staged a number of protests against gender equality classes over fears they will “promote” homosexuality.
Students who stood outside the Ministry of Education called for guidelines in the gender equality curriculum to be “revised” so as “sexual exploration and homosexuality” is discouraged.
Shih Chun-yu, a demonstrator with the Student Alliance for the Protection of Families, said: “We are not opposed to gender equality education, but we are opposed to education that amounts to the exploration of a variety of lusts and the encouragement of homosexual tendencies”.
Along with other protesters, Chun-yu called for the “gender-spectrum” module to be pulled from the module which spans over just four hours in one semester.
“Elementary-school students are still maturing and to tell them they can choose a gender identity different from their biological one just confuses them,” he said.
Hsieh Yu-chan, an executive director with the notoriously homophobic alliance, said that protests are being held across the country in Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung.
Some groups, including the Taiwan Youth Sexual Equality Association are counter-protesting.
Brian Sung is a student at the National Taipei University and is pushing to protect the current education on gender and hopefully improve it in the future.
Sung said: “We approve of these kinds of curriculum materials and we hope that they can expanded to include more people on the gender spectrum.”
Hsieh Chang-yun is the director of the Ministry of Education Special Education.
Chang-yun said that the gender equality education module was established in 2004, and that they would take “into account the views of the public” if further revisions were to be implemented.
