TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan is celebrating the LGBT community throughout October, with civil and governmental organizations collaborating to plan a series of events in the weeks leading up to the 20th annual Taiwan LGBT+ Pride parade (臺灣同志遊行) on Oct. 29.

Celebrations began with the Sept. 28 launch of Color Taipei, a Taipei City Government Department of Information and Tourism initiative, and the Saturday (Oct. 1) opening of a 20th-anniversary retrospective exhibition on the Taiwan Pride parade, titled “Walk with Pride” (為改變而走).

Color Taipei

Color Taipei, now in its third year, is an annual initiative meant to “encourage and bolster rainbow tourism and rainbow commerce within Taipei City,” according to Color Taipei Project Manager Brian Cragun. The Taiwan Rainbow Civil Action Association (TWRCAA), the organization which plans Taiwan’s pride parade every year, was selected to organize Color Taipei 2022.

As part of this year’s initiative, participants can interact with an online chatbot via the Taipei Travel Facebook Page and collect points by completing tasks that direct users to learn about Taiwanese LGBT history or frequent participating businesses. Points can then be redeemed for rewards, ranging from discount coupons to hotel stays.

The most-anticipated “Rainbow Sightseeing Bus Tour,” which is hosted by drag queens and brings visitors to prominent LGBT sites in the city, will hit the road starting Oct. 15. Attendees can choose to participate in either the daytime route, focused on LGBT historic sites and milestones, or the evening route to explore the Taipei LGBT bar and nightclub scene. English-language bus tours will be offered on Nov. 5, the second to last day of the tours.

Altogether, nearly 40 LGBT-friendly businesses are connected to the Color Taipei initiative.

“We have these connections with the LGBT community, so we utilize that to bring out as many of those LGBT-friendly and LGBT+ business owners, and businesses that we know maybe don’t get as much recognition as the larger businesses do,” Cragun said.

Walk with Pride

In addition to the Color Taipei initiative, the TWRCAA has organized a “Walk with Pride” exhibition that will be open until Nov. 6 at Songshan Cultural and Creative Park. In honor of the 20th anniversary of Taiwan LGBT+ Pride, the exhibition serves as a retrospective on every Pride parade since the event began in 2003.

Around 800 people participated in the initial 2003 parade, which was organized by the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline (台灣同志諮詢熱線協會), an organization that provides counseling and support to the LGBT community in Taiwan. As Taiwan LGBT+ Pride continued to grow, TWRCAA was established in 2012 with the sole purpose of planning the annual event, eventually hitting record attendance in 2019 with over 200,000 participants.

In the first three days since the opening, the exhibition has seen nearly 1000 visitors. According to Curator Lin Yi-ling (林怡伶), who is also the Director of Human Resources Development for TWRCAA, many attendees have taken the time to read each of the exhibition’s descriptions and ask questions to the volunteer staff.

“I hope [the people who attend the exhibition] can find more courage about themselves, and they can be themselves every single day, and not just Pride,” Lin said. “For the people who never really knew [about] gay pride, they will see that there are a lot of people who are actually fighting for this issue, and they have to be seen. I hope they will be more understanding to people of different varieties, and people can know each other better through this exhibition.”

More information about 2022 Taiwan LGBT+ Pride, including finalized parade routes and performers, will be released closer to Oct. 29. A stage show will take place after the parade that day — a performance by “rainbow ambassador,” singer-songwriter Sandee Chan, and a “Rainbow Market,” in which LGBT-friendly companies and organizations will advertise and sell products. There will also be a transgender pride parade in Ximen on the evening of Oct. 28, the day before the official Taiwan LGBT+ Pride.

The theme of this year’s parade is “An Unlimited Future,” and organizers hope the event sparks discussion on the future of LGBT rights in Taiwan, with a particular focus on groups that are often underrepresented in the LGBT community.