Well why didn't you say so to begin with?

This is odd. The parking brake circuit is /totally/ separate from the
taillight circuit. They don't even use the same fuse.

That switch should be OFF when the handle is down. You've wired it ON,
which is not the correct answer here.

The fact that jumping the PB switch lets your taillights illuminate
suggests you have a ground or power problem, not a parking brake switch
problem. The parking brake jumper wire is now providing ground or power for
the taillights.

Did your license plate lights work before you jumped the parking brake
switch? If not, you definitely have a ground or power problem.

You don't say if you have a hatch or a sedan. Has the car been in rear-
ended at some point? In the hatch there's a ground connection behnd the
trim panel inside, between the taillights. Body shops sometimes forget to
reconnect this ground. The same ground in the sedan is under the parcel
shelf. Sometimes people disconnect it while installing speakers and forget
to do it back up again.

Have you checked ALL the fuses? Checked to make sure there's power to the
hot leg of the 15A taillight/license plate light fuse? That fuse is kind of
in the middle of the bunch of skinny fuses in the under-dash fuse box.