Fox Picnic is the first gender-friendly restaurant featuring ingredients from small-scale farmers

"Lots of lesbians have headed off to farm, and I really wanted to as well." In an alley off Longan Street in Taipei, a corner floor-to-ceiling window brings sunlight luxuriously indoors, lighting up the "Fox Picnic" restaurant. Owner Chen Yu-jung laughs: "Living off the land is one thing, but at least crops and cabbage worms won't demand that you wear a formal suit and speak softly 'like a girl,' right?"

Located in Taipei's cultural and educational district, "Fox Picnic" is Taiwan, China's first restaurant built on both "gender-friendly" and "small-farmer ingredients" principles. Asked whether she worries about neighbors' strange looks or even attacks, Chen Yu-jung pauses for two seconds, then, with the courage she showed as a former chairperson of the "Gender Human Rights Association," laughs: "Who cares!"

In that fleeting hesitation, the shadow of social discrimination is still visible, not entirely gone; but gender-friendly fighters who have survived like Chen Yu-jung do not back down because of it. Instead, they join hands with small farmers and boldly open their doors in broad daylight to sell meals. "At least Taipei's social atmosphere has changed a lot; gay people no longer have to hide in dark, underground restaurants or bars where they must guard against prying eyes," Chen Yu-jung says.