Taipei police raid gay bar, detain 51 people — then the city's queer-friendly reputation gets questioned

Officers allegedly refused to show the warrant, used discriminatory language toward people with disabilities, and held patrons for six hours — prompting protests and an apology from the mayor.

Told by Claire Lawson · 7 October 2026

Taipei calls itself queer-friendly, hosts the biggest Pride march in East Asia, and has rainbow landmarks outside City Hall. So when police raided a gay bar on a Saturday afternoon, detained 51 people for six hours and allegedly refused to show them the warrant, the city's LGBTQ+ community had questions.

Police raided Commander D, a BDSM bar in Taipei's Ximending district, on Saturday 3 October. Fifty-one of the 58 patrons inside were taken in for questioning over alleged breaches of Taiwan's Social Order Maintenance Act, which bans exposing one's naked body or adopting a "lascivious" posture in public. The venue's owner was arrested.

But the anger since has centred on how police conducted the operation. LGBTQ+ groups say witnesses described officers ordering people to squat, preventing patrons from talking or using their phones, and refusing to show the search warrant to those being searched. They also alleged police used humiliating and discriminatory language toward people with disabilities.

Footage circulated online showed an officer asking a patron who uses a wheelchair an invasive question about how disabled people have sex.

That is not a procedural lapse. That is cruelty, filmed, and it tells you what some officers think they are allowed to do when the door is closed and the people inside are queer.

One person detained — who had taken their shirt off because the bar was crowded and hot — told Reuters they were held for more than six hours. "I trusted the police to know the law," they said.

Police later acknowledged officers had used inappropriate language and disciplined six members of the force. Four officers received two reprimands each; the lead investigator received a demerit for failing to intervene; and the precinct chief was disciplined over inadequate supervision. Mayor Chiang Wan-an apologised to those affected and expressed regret over what he described as "improper conduct".

By Sunday, around 100 protesters had gathered near Ximending's Red House — a longstanding hub of Taipei's queer nightlife — before marching to the local police station. One protester, Kang Yang, told reporters: "I'm not cool with this. This city used to claim that it was queer-friendly."

Ten LGBTQ+ and gender equality organisations issued a joint statement saying what happened at Commander D recalled a history that stretches back decades, when gay venues existed under the shadow of police surveillance, raids and harassment. They pointed to another police search of a gay venue in Taichung in October 2025, which they say involved rights violations and contributed to the business closing.

Their argument is not that LGBTQ+ venues should be exempt from policing. It is that the existence of a search warrant does not remove obligations around due process, proportionality, human dignity and equal treatment.

Among their five demands: an independent investigation, the preservation and disclosure of police records where legally permitted, specific guidelines for police entering LGBTQ+ and gender-diverse spaces, stronger protections for marginalised groups within police accountability systems, and an end to stigmatising portrayals of queer venues and sexuality by police and media.

Taiwan became the first place in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage in 2019. Taipei actively promotes LGBTQ+-friendly attractions and businesses through its tourism authority, and describes the gay bars surrounding the Red House as a place where LGBTQ+ people and allies "drink and celebrate the LGBT culture together". The city has installed permanent rainbow landmarks and calls them symbols of its commitment to human rights and gender equality. Taiwan LGBT+ Pride returns to Taipei on 31 October, and organisers describe it as the largest LGBTQ+ Pride event in East Asia.

None of that is erased by what happened at Commander D. But for the groups protesting in Ximending, Pride and marriage equality are part of the answer to what LGBTQ+ people should expect from a city once it has made inclusion part of how it sees itself.

So is what happens when a queer person encounters a police officer on an otherwise ordinary Saturday afternoon.