ABOVE: LGBTQ Pride celebration in Taipei, Taiwan Oct. 31. (Photo by Amy Qin, from Twitter)
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) | A huge and festive crowd marched in Taiwan’s capital Oct. 31 in an annual LGBTQ Pride event.
Turnout was down from last year, but organizers said it still topped 100,000 on a mostly sunny day in Taipei. Many participants did not wear protective masks, but others did, some in rainbow colors.
Perfect weather, huge crowds and rainbow masks 🌈 😷for Taipei Pride today. Taiwan recently marked 200 days without local COVID transmission #taipeipride pic.twitter.com/vH9GybewBl
— Amy Qin (@amyyqin) October 31, 2020
While many Pride events elsewhere moved online this year because of COVID-19, Taiwan has largely kept the pandemic at bay. The self-governing island of 24 million people has recorded 555 cases of the coronavirus and has not had a locally spread case in more than 200 days.
“While the rest of the world is stuck in the pandemic, we can still organize such a massive event,” said Zoe Tsao, who works in digital marketing. “This, I think, is great and very precious.”
International travel restrictions did reduce the number of participants coming from abroad this year.
Taiwan became the first and only place in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage last year. Two lesbian couples tied the knot in a mass wedding held by Taiwan’s military Oct. 30. The mass wedding with 188 couples was the first time same-sex couples have been wed and celebrated at a military ceremony.
