「That depends. Do you think this vote happened because the LGBTQ+ plus community and their allies in Taiwan got complacent and didn't vote? Or is it because large group of people in Taiwan are bigoted and wanted to make things even more complicated for LGBTQ+ people? Kind of a simplistic way of stating that, but l think you get my point.」
「That's going to be a lot harder to fight. The only thing I've seen work is grassroots movements that try and change the culture from the bottom up. It's a lot harder for people to fear other people, than it is for them to fear nebulous ideas of what they think the LGBTQ+ community is.
I've seen this in my own community in the US. I grew up in a really small mountain town. I was one of 3 people who were out during highschool. We definitely got a lot of shit from people. Lot of hate speech, and even violence, used against us. But we still kept proud. We would March together during our towns parades with a rainbow flag.
I was here for the parade last year, and now there is even a LGBTQ+ Alliance at my old highschool. Looks like they have around 25-30 members. That progress was amazing to see.
I guess that's why I'm always optimistic about these things...I genuinely think that even conservative people can be made to understand who we are, and why we want what we want; IE the same rights as anyone else.」
「(保守的觀念)是很難去對抗的,唯一一種我見過會奏效的事情就是從最草根的運動做起,從下而上徹底地開始改變。人們很難去害怕另一群人,但他們很容易就可以害怕某種模糊不清的概念,他們現在對於 LGBTQ+ 族群就還停留在某種模糊不清的概念。
我是一路這樣看著我自己在美國的社區過來的。我小時候在一個非常小的山區小鎮長大,我高中的時候是全校三個出櫃的人之一。我們經過超爆多爛事,仇恨言論,甚至是暴力都用來對付我們。但我們還是抬頭挺胸為自己驕傲,我們帶著彩虹旗參加小鎮的驕傲遊行,並且努力跟所有可以碰到的人都親自握手。這樣他們就知道我們是好人,不是單純只是陌生人。
(續)
我想那也是我為什麼會一直都對這些事情很樂觀。我是真的認為那些保守的人可以有一天瞭解我們是誰,為什麼我們想要爭取這些東西;也就是其他所有人都有的權利。」