Taiwan, the
first country in Asia to legalise same sex marriage, back in 2019, has had to
cancel WorldPride 2025 due to “political considerations.” The Taiwanese
government said organisers of WorldPride had insisted that the word “Taiwan” be
removed.

Taiwan
typically participates in global events under the name “Chinese Taipei”. This
is done in a bid to avoid political problems with China, which views the
democratically-governed island as its own territory and bristles at anything
suggesting it to be a separate country.

Taiwan’s
southern city of Kaohsiung was supposed to host WorldPride 2025 Taiwan, upon
winning the rights to host it from the LGBT rights group InterPride. Kaohsiung
organisers told CNN that InterPride “suddenly” asked them to drop the name
Taiwan from the event and change it to “Kaohsiung”.

“After
careful evaluation, it is believed that if the event continues, it may harm the
interests of Taiwan and the Taiwan gay community. Therefore, it is decided to
terminate the project before signing the contract,” said Kaohsiung organisers said.

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Taiwan’s Foreign
Ministry 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,
has unilaterally rejected the mutually agreed upon consensus and broken a
relationship of cooperation and trust, leading to this outcome,” it said.

“Not only
does the decision disrespect Taiwan’s rights and diligent efforts, it also
harms Asia’s vast LGBTQ+ community and runs counter to the progressive
principles espoused by InterPride.”

InterPride,
in a statement, said they were “surprised to learn” the news and while they
were disappointed, respected the decision. “We were confident a compromise
could have been reached with respect to the long-standing WorldPride tradition
of using the host city name. We suggested using the name ‘WorldPride Kaohsiung,
Taiwan’.”

Taiwan has
always been proud of its progressive stance on gay rights. China, on the other
hand, does not allow same-sex marriages even though same-sex relationships are
not outlawed in the Communist state.