萬國法律事務所

Human-rights advocates have recently proposed that the Gender Equality in Employment Law needs to be revised to cover non-traditional gender roles and to include employment rights for individuals of diverse gender identities and sexual orientations.

The goal of the advocates is to amend the law so that it protects employees with various gender identities, GLBT (Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender). Women’s rights advocates and sympathetic legislators are uniting to call on society to help to change Taiwan’s places of work so that they are friendlier and safer for sexual minorities.

Working in a sexually discriminatory workplace has always been problematic for Taiwan’s GLBT community despite the passage of the law, which limits the definition of gender roles to only men and women, according to Ashley Wu, director of public affairs from the Taiwanese Gay Hotline Association.

Taiwan’s current version of the Gender Equality in Employment Law became effective on International Women’s Day in 2002. The Law prohibits the creation of a “hostile sexual environment” as a result of any person’s use of speech or actions that amount to requesting sexual favors or demonstrating gender discrimination in a way that infringes or interferes with the dignity, individual freedom, or work performance of another person in the workplace.

In 1993, a male kindergarten teacher in Taiwan filed a complaint against his employer and alleged that he was dismissed because he dressed as a woman. The Gender Equality Employment Committee of the Taipei City Labor Affairs Bureau ruled in favor of the plaintiff teacher and stated that the employer’s decision to fire the teacher violated the Law. However, despite that progressive ruling, two transgender individuals committed suicide in Taiwan after having repeatedly encountered sexual discrimination in their respective workplaces and eventual firings. Advocates assert that these cases demonstrate clearly that there is still much work to do and progress to be made before gender stereotypes are broken down and the employment rights of sexual minorities’ are adequately protected, according to Taiwan’s Gender/Sexuality Rights Association.