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Taiwan's
democratization has long been a source of pride for both its
government and its people.
However, in the very process of democratization, we
have increasingly experienced a constriction on freedom of
speech regarding sex-related issues.
What distinguishes this trend of constriction from the
political dictatorship that we lived under in the past is that
it is appealing to notions of "compelling mainstream
opinions¡¨ or ¡§the majority of the people,¡¨ invoking the
most conservative brand of moralism, and kindling irrational
fear and panic in people.
¡§Children and juveniles will be exposed to harmful
influences¡¨ has now become the most common and inviolable
principle that is used to restrict people¡¦s freedom of
speech and thought. Whether
any demonstrable causal links have been proven or whether this
theory has any scientific basis has never been questioned.
What is even more
deplorable is that even academic work that focuses on marginal
subjects and marginal phenomena has not escaped the clutches
of this trend of constriction. Political profiteers, media sensationalists and moral police
agents have not hesitated to take advantage of this moralism
to exert pressure on the public.
Through budget-monitoring, supervision of
policy-makers, media reportage, these groups have effectively
blocked the transmission of information and views by or about
people who are different from themselves, silencing all
alternative voices and putting the fear of censorship into the
hearts of all. The
events surrounding the banning of the hyperlinks to bestiality
on the website of National Central Universal¡¦s Center for
the Study of Sexualities are but one rather conspicuous
example among many. In
April, conservative groups (including Child Protective
Committee in Printed Matters, (Christian) Garden of Hope, End
Child Prostitution And Trafficking Taiwan, Catholic Good
Shepherd Sisters) brought these links to the attention of the
general public through sensational media reportage in a
concerted effort to discredit and defame Professor Josephine
Ho, founder and director of this center. In response to pressure from the Ministry of Education
and the University following public concern over the issue,
Prof. Ho complied and removed these links from the Center¡¦s
website. On June 23, the above-mentioned NGOs regrouped in a more
focused attack on Prof. Ho by filing a lawsuit, in conjunction
with other conservative education groups (such as Taipei City
Parent and Teacher Association) charging her with
¡§propagating obscenities that corrupt traditional
values and may cause a bad influence on children and
juveniles.¡¨ The
groups also urge that she be dismissed from her teaching
position because even though she removed the links she has not
shown proper repentance for her actions. In the remarkably candid words of one spokesperson of the
charges against her, this is a case of ¡§sacrificing a
chicken to reform the monkeys.¡¨
Prof. Ho is being
targeted for a decade of sex positive activism, including
writing and speaking in support of as well as struggling with
gays and lesbians, sex workers, inter-generational couples,
transsexual and transgender subjects, betel nut beauties, etc.
Beginning with her rallying cry ¡§we want orgasms not
sexual harassment¡¨ at the first anti-sexual harassment march
in 1994 in Taipei, Prof. Ho has been consistently effective
and influential in the larger public sphere.
As a result of her efforts and her willingness to
take up stigmatized subjects in the public eye, most notably
the Taipei licensed prostitutes struggle from 1997-9, and more
recently the fight against police entrapment of minors and
sexual services arranged over the internet, her name has
actually become a household word. She
has consequently also been the target of an escalating
conservative backlash that has finally culminated in this
lawsuit, brought against her personally by a coalition of
forces from religious groups, child-protection conservative
groups to opportunistic politicians.
Prof. Ho is a prominent figure on her campus,
attracting large numbers of students to her classes and to
Central University. She
has published 10 books in the fields of sexuality and
education (she holds two Ph.D.s, one in education and one in
English) and is well known among Asian feminists outside of
Taiwan. She is
currently an invited visiting scholar with Ochanomizu
University in Tokyo. And it has been during the course of her first prolonged
absence from Taiwan in the past ten years that these
defamations and legal prosecutions have been taking place.
The legal actions
against Prof. Ho have far-reaching impact on not just the
teaching and research of sexuality, sexology and sexuality
related issues and subjects on campus, but also on the
emergent LGBT and sex workers movement in Taiwan as well as
the increasing policing and censorship of sexuality on the
internet. Taking
recourse to legal action against one of the most outspoken
advocates of sexual minorities and dissident sexualities is
symbolic of a will to sabotage and obstruct the
progress that non-normative sexual subjects in Taiwan have
struggled for over the past years. It is above all symbolic of a will to dishearten and prevent
public action against sexual inequality.
A closed, intolerant
social structure is never what a pluralist society needs, and
it deviates from the course of democratization of Taiwan.
As academic researchers and internet users, we urge our
fellow-citizens to respect internationally recognized basic
human rights of freedom of speech and freedom of expression,
and to respect Others and the right of Others to express their
views in the culture, and to preserve a space where people can
be rationally educated about Other subjects.
We urge National Central University to refute
conservative groups¡¦ effort to intervene and supervise
academic research through demanding Professor Ho¡¦s removal
from her position; after all, an outstanding researcher and
educator is the most precious asset for any university and
should never be sacrificed to appease irrational phobia.
We also urge Taiwanese government officials to fight
against the violence of populist moralism and preserve the
integrity and autonomy of academic research and internet
freedom of expression so that they will not set back the
progress of liberalization and democratization in Taiwan.
Petitioning
Organizations:
Taiwan: A Radical
Quarterly in Social Studies, GSRAT (LGBT advocacy group),
Taiwan Human Rights Advocacy, COSWAS (prostitutes¡¦ rights
group), Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association (gay and lesbian
rights group), PWA Rights Advocacy (HIV patient rights group),
Kao-Hsiung Women¡¦s Action Association, Taipei Lawyers¡¦
Association for Human Rights Protection, Kao-Hsiung Normal
University Center for Sex/Gender Education, Hsing-chu
Fengcheng Community College, Hsing-chu Qing-cao Lake Community
College
The Undersigned:
Title:
Institution:
Contact
Information:
Please email to queerlas@ms21.hinet.net
or fax to 886-2-82510106, GSRAT
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