ON THE eighth floor in a gritty suburb of the capital, Taipei, sits the ten-year-old Wei-ming temple, a Taoist house of worship—but an unusual one. Nearly all the visitors buying bundles of prayers or bringing handwritten ones of their own to be burnt by the priest at the altar are gay. The deity receiving the prayers, and to whom the shrine is dedicated, is the Rabbit Spirit, a 17th-century folk deity from Fujian province in mainland China who protects men who have sex with men. In late imperial China, “rabbit” became a derogatory term for homosexual. In this temple the rabbits are reclaiming the label.
Warren peace
Taiwan’s open tolerance of homosexuality and its liberal view of sexual minorities generally is unique within Asia. Taipei’s annual gay-pride parade is a lively celebration that draws 80,000 people or so a year, including gay people from all over Asia. Perhaps religion has something to do with it: Taoism and Buddhism, the country’s most widespread faiths, have less doctrinal objection to homosexuality than many religions. Some in Taiwan ascribe its tolerance to the island’s long history of influences from the...Continue reading
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