|
EMERGENCY RESPONSE
NETWORK
The International Gay
and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC)
FORWARDED ALERT
Taiwan:
Defend Freedom of Expression on
Internet and in Academy in Taiwan; Protest Imminent
Prosecution of Sexual Rights Scholar/Activist
SUMMARY
The International Gay and
Lesbian Human Rights Commission forwards and endorses this
petition to protect academic freedom and freedom of
expression on the internet in Taiwan. Professor Josephine
Ho, founder of the Center for the Study of Sexualities at
National Central University in Taipei, is soon to be
prosecuted under criminal charges as a result of actions by
a new-right coalition of Catholic and conservative women's
groups. This backlash against Professor Ho is, no doubt,
inspired by her groundbreaking work on the academic study of
sexuality as well as her activism in defense of the rights
of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders; sex workers;
and women during the past decade.
FORWARDED ACTION
Protecting a Free Space for Academic
Research and Internet Freedom of Expression--urgent call to
protest prosecution of leading Taiwanese feminist sex
radical/scholar
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
University'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.Ds, one in education and one in
English) and is well known among Asian feminists outside of
Taiwan. She is currently a visiting scholar abroad.
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 int!
ernet 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, Gender and Sexuality Rights Association of Taiwan (LGBT
and sexual rights advocacy group), Taiwan Association For
Human Rights , COSWAS (prostitutes’ rights group), Taiwan
Tongzhi Hotline Association (gay and lesbian rights group),
Persons With HIV/AIDS Rights Advocacy Association, 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, Gender and Sexuality Rights Association
of Taiwan
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
A coalition of new-right conservative
forces in Taiwan have been trying to silence Professor
Josephine Ho since 1997, when she helped sex workers fight
for labor rights, which the religious women's groups helped
the Taipei mayor terminate. During the past six years,
these groups have been aggressively establishing various
legislations regarding the dissemination of sexual
information and sexual contact on the internet. As the
new government needed every bit of moral righteousness to
consolidate its political legitimacy, the legislations went
through almost effortlessly. Josephine Ho, heading the
Center for Study of Sexualities and working with the NGO
Gender/Sexualities Rights Association, has been one of the
very few to articulate resisting discourses against their
every move, and they must really want this big obstacle
removed.
Three weeks ago they brought a criminal
lawsuit against Josephine Ho, claiming that she spread
obscenities on the internet. The so-called obscenities
referred to the hyperlinks to bestiality sites in the US,
listed at the bottom of the Center's bestiality webpage,
which includes writings by philosopher Peter Singer and
translated discussions of bestiality as a historical form of
sexual practice. The bestiality webpage was one of the
more than 40 webpages (including various sexual practices
such as homosexuality and fetishism) that we have been
constructing on our website for sexuality studies.
Last year, these groups have brought complaints against the
webpages to the Ministry of Education, for
"encouraging" sex work. They have clearly
not given up on stopping Josephine Ho. This
time, if the verdict is guilty, Josephine Ho would face a
two-year prison term plus possible fines.
Since April when the media first
sensationalized this piece of news to the present time when
the lawsuit has been officially filed, over a dozen
gender/sexuality groups, human rights groups, and academic
groups have issued a petition and 1200 people, mostly
college intellectuals and professionals, have signed it to
protest such travesty against our freedom of information and
expression. We are hoping that our distinguished
foreign friends could also add their names to the petition
and help highlight the importance of this basic human right.
It will also help exert some pressure on the legal system
which has been urged along by the conservatives to make this
case a lesson to all who might be interested in sexuality
and rely on the internet for information and contact (the
phrase used by the accusing parties is "killing the
chicken to warn the monkeys").
The English petition page is finally up and we are hoping
that you would consent to sign this petition as a
demonstration of support for sex rights in Taiwan as well as
a protest against those who wish to dampen such rights. The
content of the petition follows, and if you could, please go
to the website to sign it. And please help us
disseminate this petition to people that you think might be
concerned about sex rights. Thank you very much.
The petition address:
For your reference:
Josephine Ho's webpage
Daniel J. Lee
Senior Program Officer:
Asia and the Pacific
International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC)
1375 Sutter Street, Suite 222
San Francisco, CA 94109
USA
Phone: +1-415-561-0633
Fax: +1-415-561-0619
The mission of IGLHRC is
to secure the full enjoyment of the human rights of all
people and communities subject to discrimination or abuse on
the basis of sexual orientation or expression, gender
identity or expression, and/or HIV status. A US-based
non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO), IGLHRC
effects this mission through advocacy, documentation,
coalition building, public education, and technical
assistance.
|