Taiwan participates in global organizations such as the Olympics as “Chinese Taipei”, to avoid political trouble with China, which views the self-governing democratic island as its own territory and opposes anything that suggests it is a separate country .
The southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung was to host WorldPride 2025 Taiwan, after winning the right from global LGBTQ rights group InterPride.
Last year after an outcry in Taiwan, he dropped a reference to the island as a “region”.
But Kaohsiung organizers said InterPride had recently asked them “out of the blue” to change the name of the event to “Kaohsiung”, removing the word “Taiwan”.
“After careful evaluation, it is believed that if the event continues, it may harm the interests of Taiwan and Taiwan’s gay community. Therefore, it is decided to terminate the project before signing the contract,” said the organizers of Kaohsiung
InterPride said in a statement that they were “surprised” to hear the news and, while disappointed, respected the decision.
“We were confident that a compromise could have been reached regarding WorldPride’s long-standing tradition of using the name of the host city. We suggested using the name ‘WorldPride Kaohsiung, Taiwan,'” he added.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the event would have been the first WorldPride event to be held in East Asia.
“Taiwan deeply regrets that InterPride, due to political considerations, unilaterally rejected the agreed mutual consensus and broke a relationship of cooperation and trust, leading to this outcome,” he said.
“The decision not only disrespects Taiwan’s rights and diligent efforts, but also harms the vast LGBTIQ+ community in Asia and goes against the progressive principles espoused by InterPride.”
Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage in 2019, the first in Asia, and is proud of its reputation as a bastion of LGBTQ rights and liberalism.
While same-sex relationships are not illegal in China, same-sex marriage is, and the government has been cracking down on depictions of LGBTQ people in the media and the use of social networks by the community.
