The Philippines in 1996-1997, China in 2000, Vietnam in 2009, Japan in 2013 and 2025, South Korea in 2014 and 2024, Taiwan in 2017 (the starting point of Trip By Trip), Singapore in 2018, Hong Kong and Macau in 2023, Bangkok in Thailand and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia in early 2026. I like travelling to East Asia. I’m pondering a Republic of China (ROC) trip for the later this year. Current affairs make me think I shouldn’t wait too much to revisit Formosa.
A police raid on a gay cruising bar in Taipei that saw 51 people detained and the venue’s owner arrested has triggered a wave of anger among Taiwan’s LGBTQIA+ community, with particular outrage over alleged excessive force and an officer’s inappropriate remark about disabled customers.
The 3 October 2026 raid on Commander D comes just weeks before Taipei Pride and has raised uncomfortable questions about Taiwan’s reputation as a regional leader on LGBTQIA+ rights. Taiwan became the first country in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage in 2019.
‘Ashamed and furious’
K., a Taiwanese gay man living in Europe, describes himself as “ashamed and furious”. He sees the incident in the context of Taiwan’s political history, pointing to the Kuomintang (KMT), the party of Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an, whose authoritarian past still casts a shadow over the country.
“The KMT was the old authoritarian party,” he told me. “They pretend to be democratised, but their ruling elites never got rid of the concept.”
For K., the police’s apology for inappropriate conduct during the raid does not go far enough. “I hope someone will come out and sue the police,” he says. “The police station has come out apologising for inappropriate conduct, but that falls short of real accountability.” He describes the atmosphere as feeling like “the clock has been wound back 30 years”.
That sense of historical regression is also reflected in criticism from Taiwanese LGBTQIA+ organisations, which have compared the raid with the treatment of LGBTQ+ people decades ago and called for an independent investigation, public explanations, disciplinary action and an apology.
Questions beyond Commander D
The controversy has also become entangled with Taipei’s increasingly bitter political climate. Mayor Chiang Wan-an has defended Taipei as an inclusive city, saying that everyone should enjoy equal rights regardless of sexual orientation or identity, and has expressed regret over inappropriate police conduct. Taipei mayor defends city’s inclusivity after gay bar raid
Chiang is facing re-election next month, with the KMT’s mayoral candidate competing against Democratic Progressive Party candidate Puma Shen. K. believes the raid may have had a wider political context, suspecting that authorities were looking for drugs at Commander D and that the issue could have been used to attack Shen, who has faced criticism from conservatives over his support for harm-reduction policies.
There is no public evidence that Chiang ordered the raid or that it was politically motivated; police have said the operation followed a complaint and was conducted under a court-approved search warrant.
K. nevertheless believes the mayor is distancing himself from an operation for which he thinks his administration should take responsibility. “The mayor is now sacrificing the police, pretending the order did not come from him,” he says. He also sees the officers themselves as potentially caught in a political game.
“Poor police officers in a way. Being used as pawns.”
The remark that caused particular outrage
What has particularly shocked the community is the alleged treatment of disabled people during the raid. A video circulating online appears to show an officer asking a customer in a wheelchair how disabled people “manage to have sex” in the venue. Taipei police have acknowledged that an officer made an inappropriate remark to a person in a wheelchair and said the officer had been reprimanded.
For many, however, the remark is not being viewed as an isolated lapse. LGBTQIA+ groups have argued that the incident points to deeper problems with the way police approached the venue and the people inside it, describing the raid as evidence of persistent discrimination and abuse of power. Taipei mayor defends city’s inclusivity after gay bar raid
‘I’m speaking up for myself’
The anger extends beyond Taiwanese citizens. Ellery, a Western comedian living in Taipei, wrote on Threads that people had thanked his for “speaking up for Taiwan”. His response was that he was actually speaking up for himself.
Commander D and other gay bars in Taipei are places he regularly visits, he wrote, and the raid therefore affected him directly. He questioned whether LGBTQIA+ people should now worry about encountering similar treatment when visiting a bar during Pride.
“It’s 2026,” Ellery wrote, pointing to Taiwan’s seven years of marriage equality and the government’s investment in promoting LGBTQIA+ culture. He also recalled working two years ago as a host on the government-supported Rainbow Bus project, explaining Taiwan’s LGBTQIA+ history in English, including the 1997 police raid on Changde Street.
That episode was presented as part of Taiwan’s past, a reminder of how far the country had come. The Commander D raid, he argues, has made that history feel considerably less distant. Ellery is now calling on people in the LGBTQIA+ community to learn their legal rights so they are better prepared if they encounter excessive police force.
A test before Pride
Taipei Pride takes place on 31 October. The city government continues to insist that Taipei is inclusive and welcoming, with Chiang saying that “Taipei has always been an inclusive and friendly city”. Taipei mayor defends city’s inclusivity after gay bar raid
But the Commander D raid has given that claim a very practical test. The issue is no longer simply Taiwan’s record on marriage equality or Taipei’s ability to stage one of Asia’s biggest Pride parades. It is whether LGBTQIA+ people can trust the institutions enforcing the law when they enter the spaces where queer life actually happens.
For a community that has spent decades pushing Taiwan away from the repression of its past, that is what makes the raid so unsettling. And with Pride just weeks away, Taipei’s LGBTQIA+ community is left asking how much of that past really is past.
More on Taiwan
- TAIWAN | Police raid on gay cruising bar Commander D puts Taipei’s LGBTQIA+ credentials to the test.
- VIDEO | Greenland, Uruguay, Taiwan, Thailand and Estonia vying for LGBTQIA+ tourists.
- TAIPEI | Taiwan LGBT+ Pride 2026 on Saturday 31 October, mixing with Halloween.
- Taiwan High Speed Rail unveils first N700ST trainset to boost capacity.
- Following ‘Jet Lag: The Game’ across Taiwan by rail.
- Will China invade Taiwan? Belgian expert weighs in on travel and tensions.
- Taiwan tourism rebounds, Belgian market recovers, but cost pressures and geopolitical risks shape outlook.
Taiwan 2017
- REVIEW | Taipei – Istanbul – Cologne with Turkish Airlines.
- TAIWAN | 11 Practical Tips When Going To Taipei.
- Gay Taipei with misterb&b.
- VIDEO | Alishan Forest Railway in Taiwan.
- SINGLES DAY | Why everyone should travel alone sometimes.
LGBTQIA+ and travel
- Anti-gender movement expands across Europe, with Western countries increasingly affected.
- VIDEO | Greenland, Uruguay, Taiwan, Thailand and Estonia vying for LGBTQIA+ tourists.
- LGBTQIA+ activists in Turkey seek international support as crackdown intensifies.
- Atlantis Events gay cruise now denied entry to Egypt.
- 66 countries criminalise consensual gay sex.
- European Pride events grow despite rising hate and funding pressures, and are a test of democracy, landmark report argues.
- GAY MONACO | Monaco Pride in 2026?.
- 2026 | ILGA-Europe warns of growing rollback of LGBTI rights in European Union candidate countries.
- WEST AFRICA | Niger criminalises gay sex.
- RAINBOW EUROPE MAP AND INDEX 2026 | Spain best of class and breaks Malta’s decade-long hold on Europe’s LGBTQIA+ rights top spot.
- RAINBOW EUROPE MAP AND INDEX 2025 | United Kingdom, Hungary and Georgia drop dramatically on LGBTQIA+ rights ranking.
- RAINBOW EUROPE MAP AND INDEX 2024 | These are the LGBTQIA+ friendly and LGBTQIA+ unfriendly countries in Europe.
- Belarus adopts sweeping anti-LGBTQIA+ information law, joining global crackdown on queer rights, criminalises “promotion” of homosexuality, gender transition, and childlessness.
- EU Court rules Hungary has to strike down its anti-gay propaganda law.
- ILGA-Europe: Criminalisation of LGBTI people returns to Europe’s doorstep.
- Alarming escalation in repression of LGBTI+ activists in Turkey: court rulings and prosecutions raise serious concerns.
- SPARTACUS GAY TRAVEL INDEX 2026 | Belgium among the world’s safest destinations.
- Senegal doubles prison sentences for gay sex amid rising homophobia.
- Malaysia, which outlaws gay sex, blocks access to Grindr and Blued.
- BELGIUM | Safer in theory, harsher in reality: violence and polarisation mark 2025 for LGBTQIA+ people.
- Europe reaches new low as LGBTQIA+ people face renewed criminalisation.
- SPARTACUS GAY TRAVEL INDEX 2024 | Malta, Canada, New Zealand, Spain, Portugal the most gay friendly destinations; Belgium now 21st.
- SPARTACUS GAY TRAVEL INDEX 2025 | USA and Eastern Europe under observation.
- 2025 | 65 countries where gay sex is illegal.
- ILGA-EUROPE | New era of coordinated attacks on foundations of Fundamental Rights, as EU bins Equal Treatment Directive.
- West of Ireland to host EuroPride 2028.
- GRINDR UNWRAPPED 2025 | Belgium and the Netherlands still love twinks, Taipei’s popularity rises.
- GRINDR UNWRAPPED 2024 | Belgium and the Netherlands still love twinks.
- The best cities to visit as a gay solo traveller.
- EUROPEAN UNION | Pride events do raise awareness for LGBTQIA+.
- Gay Hong Kong.
- Mr Gay Europe 2026 contest to cruise with VACAYA at summer’s end.
- How gay friendly are trending travel destinations Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina with Republika Srpska, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine?.
- ILGA WORLD | Despite more legal protections for LGBTI people, stark opposition has been a recurring theme in debates in every UN member State.
- Spartacus Travel Awards pinpoint Brussels and Taiwan as top LGBTQIA+ destinations.
- Pride movement in Europe expecting increased hostility.
- QUEER ANDORRA | Entre Nous, the only gay bar in the village.
- Europeans more accepting of LGBTQIA+ people than their political leaders.
- Queer Iceland & Rainbow(baiting) Reykjavík.
- Heading for the sun in gay destination Torremolinos.
- Manchester’s gaybourhood around Canal Street.
- 13 US states still officially punish gay sex.
- Sang Young Park, an insight on queer life in South Korea.
- Pride in Valladolid, Yucatán and queer encounters in Mexico.
- FLORIDA SOLO ROAD TRIP | Eye-opening encounters in Miami.
- FLORIDA SOLO ROAD TRIP | Key West.
- FLORIDA SOLO ROAD TRIP | Fort Lauderdale.
- FLORIDA SOLO ROAD TRIP | National Pulse Memorial and Museum in Orlando.
- Queer in a hostile world: more likely to be arrested for looking gay than for actual homosexual acts.
- Travel guide for people with HIV.
- LGBTQ+ get-together on Majestic Princess.
- HOW TO | Travel to the Eurovision Song Contest.
- Gays failing at being gay? ‘LGBTQ Mix & Mingle’ on Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas lacked enthusiasm.
- Gay Tel Aviv: pinkwashing or genuine?.
- To be or not to be out and proud LGBTQ when travelling?.
- A plea for LGBTQ travel in post-communist Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
- Gay Taipei with misterb&b.
- VIDEO | Looking for intimacy in a crowd of strangers in Japan and South Korea.
- Are you travelling to a hostile destination?.
