Although LGBTQ+ rights and people are well supported in Taiwan, the image the country projects as a liberal bastion in Asia can obfuscate fault lines, suspicion and rising partisanship in the young democracy, returning ICWA fellow Edric Huang said during his final fellowship report in Washington on November 13 at the Human Rights Campaign, which co-hosted the event.
Edric spent two years based in Taipei writing about queer communities across the island, including LGBTQ+ public spaces, rural Pride parades and a queer collective farm. He also covered the country’s 2024 general elections and the Bluebird Movement protests in response to the Chinese Nationalist Party and Taiwan People’s Party’s attempts to push through parliamentary reforms to expand the legislature’s powers. And he traveled to Singapore, Nepal and Japan to compare LGBTQ+ movements and observewell art, activism and local queer life.
The vibrancy of queer civil society reflects Taiwan’s democratic strength, Edric said, adding that trans rights remain politicized and in legal limbo. “We often think of LGBTQ+ rights as a byproduct of democracy,” he told the audience, “but over the course of my two years in Taiwan, it seems that LGBTQ+ rights can be not only a driver of a more pluralistic, inclusive way of nation-building but also an indicator of how well a democracy is performing.”
Following his talk, Edric joined the Council for Global Equality’s Mark Bromley and Ying Xin of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights for a discussion about opportunities and challenges for LGBTQ+ rights in Asia and the effects Trump Administration policies are having on queer movements around the world. ICWA Trustee Fabrice Houdart deftly moderated.
Bromley—who gave the first-ever testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the state of LGBTQ+ rights around the world in 2016—emphasized America’s consequential role on the global stage. In previous administrations, US embassies played quiet roles supporting local civil society groups and encouraging Asian governments to advance LGBTQ+ rights, he said. Under Trump, he added, “embassies are terrified of engaging with local LGBTQ+ communities,” while reporting on queer rights has been “stripped out.” Current hopes lie with governments in Asia and Europe.
Xin spoke about the complexity addressing LGBTQ+ rights in China during the government’s general crackdown. “The LGBTQ+ movement in China is fragmented but resilient,” she said, describing professional collaborations in major cities to advance transgender medical care. “These are very hard times but there is still space to advance LGBTQ+ rights in China.”
Read Edric’s dispatches here.
Speaker
Edric Huang was the David Mixner LGBTQ+ fellow (2023–2025) at the Institute of Current World Affairs, where he examined LGBTQ+ social movements in Taiwan. Previously a Schwarzman scholar, he holds a master’s degree in global affairs from Tsinghua University and a bachelor’s in anthropology and creative writing from Princeton University. After his fellowship, Edric joined Grindr for Equality, Grindr’s social impact arm, to lead a portfolio of LGBTQ+ health and human rights grants and programs across the Asia-Pacific region.
Panel
Mark Bromley is co-chair of the Council for Global Equality. He helped launch the council in 2008 to encourage a clearer and stronger American voice on international LGBT and intersex human rights concerns. In 2016, he provided the first-ever testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the state of LGBT rights around the world. Bromley and his colleagues provide regular briefings on trends impacting LGBT individuals globally.
Ying Xin is program manager for the Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program at the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where she works to support LGBTQI+ leaders worldwide and advocate for the dignity and well-being of LGBTQI+ individuals, particularly in under-represented and under-resourced regions. She promotes cross-sector collaborations addressing LGBTQI+ inclusion, disability rights and mental health.
Moderator
Fabrice Houdart spent two decades working for the UN/World Bank system. From 2001 to 2016, he was senior country officer at the World Bank, where he authored economic development analyses on Yemen, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Tunisia, and provided contributions to the 2012 Gender World Development Report (WDR) and the 2011 Conflict, Security and Development WDR. As a Human Rights Officer at the United Nations in New York (2016-2020), he worked on Free & Equal, a groundbreaking UN campaign for LGBTQ+ equality. He co-authored and led the United Nations Global LGBTQ+ standards of conduct for business, the largest corporate social responsibility initiative on LGBTQ+ issues in the world. In addition to running FH Consulting, he is the founder and executive director of the Association of LGBTQ+ Corporate Directors and a director at OutPerform LGBT invest, an LGBTQ+ impact investing fund.
