In conformity to the demand made by the Ministry of Domestic Affairs, Ministry of Finance will announce a tax reform proposal in June. The latter ministry maintained that, in order to prevent married couples who file joint income tax return from being penalized, standrad deduction for a married couple will be increased from 65,000 NT to 85,000 NT, exactly two times as much as those who file as individuals. In addition, the special tax exempt for personal savings for single people will be cut in half from 270,000 NT to 135,000 NT.

While attending to married couple's benifits, the government truns around and penalize those who are unmarried. From housing projects that encourage three-generation family structure, annual subsidies for households with children, to special wedding leaves, the government has offered a wide specturms of (monetary or otherwise) incentives for marrige. Taxes are the major source of the nation's income, but a single person, as much as a married one, seems to be considered as a second-rate tax-payers. The distribution of social welfare favors married couples but neglect groups like homosexuals, poeple in domestic partnership, and those who choose not to be married. Take the housing projects as an example, poeple who are not legally married are not eligble for subsidixed housing or special low interest rate loans. Especially wages for the same labor still vary according to different categories, single women, wihtout a doubt, recieve the most impact from such discriminatory policies. Additionally, even in a same household, there are still different positions for the more and the less privileged. Normally, women who are housewives or who provide domestic services are those who contribute the most in terms of labor and time. However, they are also the ones who get the smallest piece of pie from the society. The tax reform proposal reflects how ignorant those government officials are off the changing social structure and the diversity of needs. Heterocentric family are privileged at the expense of other, different family strcutures (single parent families, the same-sex union, etc.). It goes without saying who is in favor in the confict between the heterocentric and the alternative families.

The supreme court announced that it is unconstitutional to restrict that a married woamn's residence be that of her husband's. The discrimatory law will be ineffective within a year.

In the past, there were numerous cases in which battered wives who ran away from home were divorced by their abusive husbands without knowing it. Because notices from the court were always sent to the husbands' address, those women often ended up losing their chances to fight for their own rights and welfare. The supreme court's decision will sure to benifit a lot of unfortunate women in the future.

In a ritual for receiving Budda's Tooth, Fo-Guang Shan Temple selected 100 women with long hair kneeling along sides of the rolled down carpet while the procession paraded stepping on their hair. This was harshly criticized by a buddist scholar for its sexist outrage. The Temple responded, however, that those women were all volunteers.

Lo Wei-Xuan, a male to female transsexual, courageously came out to the public and decided to work for other transexuals' rights. A veteran military police, Lo, underwent sex change operation after her father passed away. Since then, 'she' has insisted on being out, being herself, and has stayed at the same address and the same job. Most of her friends and co-workers are very supportive. She has plans for an autobiography in the near future.
Here is another related news. Tony Chen, a radio DJ in Taichung, has always been a victim of ridicule because of his "sissiness." He started an organization called "Care for the Sissies" in April for the well-being of those men who are considered feminine by society. There are currently 11 members who call themselves "gender borderline."

Transexuals cross the biological line and "sissies" (or, "dykes") cross the socially designted gender line. Because of such line-crossing, both are penalized and discriminated against by the society. After their coming out, however, it is the society that needs to reconsider the coercion of gender and sexual binarism.