Gays living in Taiwan are now turning to the Gay Rabbit God to answer their prayers. “Ta Yeh” was a man that got killed for cruising a ruling official in 18th-century China in the bathroom.

The greater gods took pity on him and made him the rabbit god, which is considered by the Chinese to be a naturally gay animal. Because Ta Yeh now is not too popular of a deity, people pray to him hoping that he will have more time to listen to their prayers and deliver the man or woman of their dreams.

Move over Jesus! Gays just got a new god. We thought that it was an great story, so we asked one of our listeners in Taiwan to go check it out to see if it was real. The following is a first hand hand account from one of our listener in Taiwan at the shrine of Ta Yeh, the Rabbit God in Taipei, Taiwan. It has been slightly edited to protect his identity.

At the Shrine of Ta Yeh
We knocked and the door was opened by a man visiting the priest. At the time I wasn’t really sure who the priest was as there were five men in a living room like office. None of them really looked like a priest to me and none of them spoke to us. Then a young man who introduced himself as the apprentice of the priest said he would give us a tour and explain how to worship the rabbit god once we told him this was our first time there. Then we asked him if we could take pictures and he said yes. My friend thought that was unusual as usually priests don’t like people taking pictures of altars.

The apprentice led us up some stairs to the second floor. It’s basically just an old very plain house but I didn’t see any sign that anyone is living there or sleeping there. It appeared to be only for worship. We were lead into the first room. In Taoist temples it’s customary to first pray to the normal three gods at a regular altar first and then move to another room to pray to the specific god of that temple. We were told a 100 NT donation was appropriate (a little more than 3 US dollars).

There was a donation box. The donation wasn’t required though. It was just optional. I put our money in and then we picked up three incense sticks each. We had to bow to each god with the lighted incense sticks and then stick them in the right bowls with other incense sticks. One god and a tiger statue were under the table so we had to stick two out of the three incense sticks under the table.

The image of one god looked pretty gay to me so I thought that might be the rabbit god but I was told it was just the drinking god. We then put bundles of fake money on the altar. Later we were supposed to return after worshiping the rabbit god and burn these bundles of money on the balcony.

I didn’t want to do this as I’m always complaining about how bad the pollution is from all the money burning festivals and ghost month money burning. Burning our own fake money was optional anyway but everyone else there did it.

The temple was crowded. There were three sets of lesbians and two gay couples there also and we were all taking turns. Then we went to the actual rabbit altar to light incense sticks and there they had these paper things that looked like fake books. They told us that the books were burned once a month and that we should write our message to the rabbit god on a book and when the book is burned he will get the message. There were already many of these books on the table as you can see from the picture with lots of writing on them in pen.

There was a lesbian couple before us and they took a long time, about twenty minutes bowing to the rabbit god and writing on their books. Then it was our turn and we lit the incense, bowed etc. Then we went back to the first altar and took the picture with the FOF T-shirt on it. Then we took the picture of FOF t-shirt on the rabbit god temple. When I did this I accidentaly knocked a bunch of the books on the floor which according to my friend was a big taboo, but no one caught me.

I wasn’t going to wear the T-shirt and my Taiwanese friend wasn’t either because both of us are English teachers and in the closet. We would both immediately be fired if it is known here that we are gay. Both of us love teaching and being in the closet is the price we pay to be able to do our jobs.

Anyway, we asked the apprentice to wear the T-shirt. It took a little convincing but he agreed to do it. When he actually said yes, it kind of surprised me. After we took the picture of him, we went back downstairs and the priest invited us to sit and talk with him. He doesn’t speak any English. I told him about the Feast of Fools podcast and I even asked him if he would do an interview if someone in Chicago could translate. He said he would be happy to and he gave me his card, or rather the Rabbit Temple business card. I will send it out to you on Monday.

When I realized who the priest was I was kind of taken back because he looks like a 15 year old boy. If you ask me he looks younger than his apprentice. My friend told me he was probably in his 30s though. I found this pretty disappointing as I was envisioning a sexy silver fox priest.

The priest seemed busy with his other guests so we didn’t stay long. We thanked him and prepared to leave. The priest then asked me if he could take my picture in front of the rabbit altar. I had to say yes and the apprentice took my picture standing next to my friend. We then told him we were in the closet and to please not use the picture. He told us no problem. He didn’t mind though that we use his picture. I thought that was very cool of him.

My biggest impression of my time at the temple was from the lesbians, especially the ones that we waited for while they were at the rabbit altar. I could tell this was serious business for them and they really needed this rabbit god’s help. They seemed really sincere and just seeing this couple at the temple made the whole thing really serious and real for me.

For these people it wasn’t a joke. Being gay in Taiwan is extremely hard for most people. It’s ridiculed and goes against all family traditions, especially the one that says you have to get married. When I saw the lesbians I felt I was watching something really sacred. It wasn’t just a temple in a house, but a special place.