Taiwan opts out of World Pride event

Taiwan participates in global organisations like the Olympics as Chinese Taipei to avoid political problems with China, which views the self-governing democratic island as its own territory and bristles at anything that suggests it is a separate country.

Taiwan's southern city of Kaohsiung had been due to host WorldPride 2025 Taiwan after winning the right from the global LGBTQ rights group InterPride.

After an outcry in Taiwan last year, it dropped a reference to the island as a region. But the organizers of Kaohsiung said InterPride had recently asked them 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 the Taiwan and the Taiwan gay community. The organizers of Kaohsiung said that it was decided to terminate the project before signing the contract. InterPride said in a statement they were surprised to learn of the news and that they were disappointed, but they respected the decision. We were confident that a compromise could have been reached with respect to the long-standing WorldPride tradition of using the host city name. It added that we suggested using the name '' WorldPride Kaohsiung, Taiwan'. The Foreign Ministry of Taiwan said the event would have been the first WorldPride event to be held in East Asia. Taiwan regrets that InterPride has broken a relationship of cooperation and trust because of political considerations and unilaterally rejected the mutually agreed upon consensus, leading to this outcome, it said. The decision not only disrespects Taiwan's rights and diligent efforts, but it also harms Asia's vast LGBTIQ community and runs counter to the progressive principles espoused by InterPride. In 2019, Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage in Asia, and is proud of its reputation as a bastion of LGBTQ rights and liberalism. In China, same-sex marriage is not illegal, and the government has been cracking down on LGBTQ people in the media and the use of social media.