The case of a small Vancouver gay bookstore which battled the censorship powers of Canada Customs for over a decade is now being replayed in Taiwan.

Taiwanese activists and academics are also pointing to court rulings involving the Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium urging the Taiwanese government to emulate Canada's protection of human rights.

Protestors perform a skit outside the Keelung court following the verdict

The owners said the authorities were making decisions about whether merchandise was obscene based on "heterosexual values."

In 2000, the Supreme Court of Canada agreed the shop had been treated unfairly in a row over imported merchandise labelled obscene.

The Canadian judgment condemned the way gay erotica had been targeted at the border but allowed customs officers still to have the power to detain material the government considered obscene.

Little Sister's Bookstore also lost its bid for costs against Canada Customs. In Taiwan this month Lai Jeng-jer, the owner of Gin Gin's Bookstore in Taipei, was found guilty by the Keelung District Court for selling "indecent" magazines and faces 50 days in prison.

The sentence came two years after Lai, whose bookstore specializes in gay and lesbian literature, was charged.

Activists and academics denounced the verdict as a reflection of the dominance of heterosexual ideology and hatred of the homosexual community in Taiwan.

"Judging from the attitude of Keelung customs officers, prosecutors and the judge during these two years, I am not surprised at the verdict," Lai said. "We [the gay community] believe that there is nothing wrong with the publications."

Chang Hsiao-hung, a proponent of women's rights and an academic at National Taiwan University (NTU), said the verdict showed that although Taiwan claims to be an open society which embraces racial and cultural diversity, it is still extremely conservative when it comes to the issue of homosexuality.

Chu Wei-cheng, an NTU English professor, said in a Taiwan newspaper that Lai's sentence is intended as a symbolic punishment to warn the gay community not to violate social norms.

"Reading pornography is a common experience shared by homosexuals and heterosexuals," Chu said. "There is no reason to punish only homosexuals for reading or even just thinking about sex. I think we should abolish this ridiculous law."

Gay writer Hsu You-sheng, who cited the Little Sister's case in Vancouver, called on the Taiwanese government to emulate that country's protection of human rights.

"A bookstore owner who imported the book The Joy of Gay Sex from the United States in 1987 faced the same charge brought by the Canadian Custom officers. The judge found him not guilty," Hsu said.

"Comparing the Canada case to this case, Taiwan's efforts to be a country with the respect of human rights is still years behind Western countries." Josephine Ho, an advisor to the Gender Sexuality Rights Association and dean of National Central University's English Department, condemned the verdict for denying gay people their basic human rights.

"The verdict suggests that any sexual desire that come from the gay community is a sin. It is not only a denial of gays' human rights, but also a punishment of the empowerment of sexual desires and freedom to read, which is a serious loss to all of us, either heterosexual or homosexual," Ho said.