In light of the police raid on a gay bar in Taipei’s Wanhua District, the Taiwanese American Citizens League (TACL) reaffirms its commitment to inclusivity and nondiscrimination for LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities.

On October 3, officers executed a warrant at Commander D on suspected public morality violations. They took 51 patrons in for questioning and referred the bar’s owner to prosecutors. Accounts differ on whether that warrant was shown. During the search, officers restricted the use of cellphones to record the raid and refused to provide a badge number. An officer was recorded mocking a disabled patron’s sexuality. When the bar’s manager objected, the manager was handcuffed, and patrons reported that he was ordered to kneel. The Wanhua Precinct initially denied that any officer had humiliated a disabled person; it reversed itself only after the recording surfaced. The Taipei City Police Department has since found that four officers used inappropriate language, and it has disciplined six officers in all.

We condemn the excessive and discriminatory conduct by the police. A search warrant authorizes a search. It does not authorize officers to ridicule a person’s disability or sexuality.

Americans should recognize this pattern: the modern American gay rights movement grew out of a police raid. In June 1969, officers raided the Stonewall Inn in New York City, and the patrons and neighbors who refused to accept it began a movement that reshaped the country. Taiwan has built a reputation as a leader on LGBTQ+ rights as the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, and Taiwanese Americans take pride in that record. Upholding it requires respect for LGBTQ+ and disabled people in everyday policing and every day, period, not only on Pride weekend.

LGBTQ+ and disabled Taiwanese Americans belong fully in our community, and TACL will keep working to make that true at home and abroad.