Taiwan Equality Campaign
社團法人台灣彩虹平權大平台協會
The Taiwan Equality Campaign (TEC) was previously Marriage Equality Taiwan. In November 2016, five different LGBTIQ+ organizations (the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline, Taiwan LGBT Family Rights Advocacy Association, the Awakening Foundation, Taiwan Association for the Pride Watch, GagaOOLala) came together to form a cross-organizational platform - Marriage Equality Taiwan.
After the legalization of same-sex marriage on May 24th, 2019, Marriage Equality Taiwan began to transit to another stage and the organization is officially registered as Taiwan Equality Campaign.
Making Waves in Politics Action for Every Unique Individual
Over the years, TEC has accumulated tremendous experiences and momentums in political participation. TEC gradually realizes that there are a lot of potential and opportunities for political advocacy and transformation in Taiwan. TEC carried on their unfinished mission after the enactment of the special law on same-sex marriage. TEC has continuously worked on central and local governmental advocacy, lobbying for LGBTIQ+-friendly policies and resources, encouraging the communities in political participation, and launching the election monitoring and guide, PrideWatch, to motivate citizens to monitor the election and vote for gender-friendly candidates.
Advocacy Transformation: From Digital Communications to Popular Culture
In the emerging digital era, TEC leverages their past experiences on social media campaigning, further develops their YouTube and Podcast programs, along with other online community organizing activities, TEC persistently promotes and expands the discussion.
TEC strives to engage the mass public through popular culture as well. TEC collaborated with Red Hot, a non-profit production company in the US, to produce a dedicated album T-POP. In 2022, TEC organized the first Q POWER, paying tribute and encouraging more artists, creators, art industry distributors, and corporations to channel positive, accurate, and diverse messages and tell stories of LGBTIQ+ communities. Through collaborations with influencers, brands, innovative industries, corporations, and international communities, Q POWER amplifies the impact for the public to experience the power of those brilliant art and cultural productions that appear in our everyday lives, and to create possibilities for more dialogues and communications.
All these co-created experiences and accomplishments are invaluable and filled with the values and beliefs of democracy that Taiwan embraces and shares. TEC wishes to join hands with every unique individual in Taiwan to flourish the country, making this land suitable for everyone to live on.
On May 24th, 2019, Taiwan became the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, allowing Taiwanese people the right to marry, letting Taiwan shine before the international community.
It was usually organized after elections, aiming to train more individuals from the LGBTIQ+ communities to devote themselves to the political arena, enshrining and protecting their rights through law and policy advocacy. Since 2020, 45 people have attended and more than 70% expressed their willingness to enter the political arena.
Organized every two years since 2022, Q POWER strives to pay tribute and encourage more artists, creators, art industry distributors, and corporates to channel positive, accurate, and diverse messages and tell stories of LGBTIQ+ communities. TEC believes such collaborations help plant seeds for LGBTIQ+-friendly art and cultural production. The online streaming of the first Q POWER award ceremony has successfully attained over 100,000 viewers.
Through regular meetings and visits, TEC successfully connected with 87 city/county councilors of the eight municipalities, 35 local organizations, and co-advocated over 10 LGBTIQ+ friendly policies at the local level, enabling inclusivity into practice.
TEC anticipated encouraging voters to monitor the election, especially for the gender-related manifestos of candidates. Through the PrideWatch campaign, TEC successfully engaged 103 LGBTIQ+-friendly elected candidates in the 2022 local elections, and the election-monitoring website attained over 200,000 viewers before voting day.
