title: Wei-ming temple
text: # Wei-ming temple
  
  Wei-ming temple (Chinese: 威明堂; pinyin: Wēi míngtáng), also known as Rabbit Temple, is a Taoist temple in New Taipei City, Taiwan dedicated to Tu'er Shen (lit. "The Rabbit God"), a Chinese deity associated with gay love and sex.
  
  ## History
  
  Founded by Taoist priest Lu Wei-ming in 2006, the shrine is explicitly welcoming to gay congregants, and draws about 9,000 attendees per year. According to Wei-ming, the temple is the only shrine in the world dedicated to homosexuals, and has stated that his intent in creating the shrine was to create a welcoming place for a demographic subject to ostracism. While praying to the gods for a lover is a traditional Taoist custom, the Wei-ming temple's focus on sexuality is distinct, and a symbol of queer identity in Taiwanese society. The temple has been the target of sporadic protests by Taiwan's small Christian community, with a priest attempting to perform an exorcism of the shrine on one occasion.
  
  