In response to the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) on May 17, the New Taipei City Secretariat is hosting the International Queer Youth Photography Competition, and the winning entry “Color” will represent New Taipei City in the Rainbow Cities Network (RCN) international photographic exhibition, empowering queer youth to build a rainbow bridge through images and interconnecting with the world, displaying the friendly spirit of diversity and inclusion.




The contest theme is “Queer Youth”, aspiring to use photos to present diverse youth perspectives advocating for disadvantaged groups in this international event, and promoting society to be more open and inclusive. The Secretariat, the Social Welfare Department, and Youth Department jointly held the awards ceremony, in conjunction with a special exhibit, not only encouraging the winners, but displaying New Taipei City’s care and support for LGBTQI+ community. This event includes student entries and society entries, with the top three winning entries in each category recognized personally by Director General of Secretariat Chingyu Yao, Commissioner of Youth Department Chao-Mei Chiu, Deputy Commissioner of the Social Welfare Department Hsiu-Neng Hsu, also present was Yi Chen of the Secretariat’s Gender Equality Committee. The student category’s RCN first prize winning entry was “Color”, and it will represent New Taipei City in the RCN IDAHOBIT photographic exhibition, both physical and online displays.

The RCN was founded as an initiative of the Netherlands government, deploying the forces of municipalities to advance empowerment of LGBTQI+ rights, and there are now 47 member localities from 20 countries, with New Taipei City joining in 2021, as the second city in Taiwan to become a member municipality.




Director General Chingyu Yao noted that New Taipei City’s population is the largest in Taiwan, with a diverse environment and rich arts and cultural scene, along with a populace with high diversity, hence it is only natural for the municipality to place a strong emphasis on promotion of gender equality and ensuring gender friendly policies, through assiduous participation in international organizations. The city government also aimed to deploy the nation’s first gender friendly, age inclusive, barrier free sustainable and all-gender public restroom. Through these efforts, the city expresses pragmatically embracing diverse citizenry cohorts, integrating diverse sustainability into the public’s municipal life, while ensuring international harmonization with the UN SDGs, working hand in hand towards inclusion and mutuality.



The student category RCN first prize winning entry- “Color” by Chen Kiet-Hiung - Tungnan University International Students 41st Cohort

Gender Equality Committee member Yi Chen remarked, throughout the New Taipei City government’s bureaus, every office works to implement their duties in a pragmatic manner to foster diverse gender-friendly inclusion principles. Since New Taipei City has a large population, these special efforts mean that we are more able to directly reach and empower one-sixth of our citizenry, ensuring the community that our citizens appreciate how beneficial the value of inclusion really can be. 


Competent Authority: Secretariat