PRIDE
Taiwan to Host WorldPride in 2025
International Pride event to be held in East Asia for the fi rst time
BY MATT TRACY
Kaohsiung, a city in
southern Taiwan, has
been selected to host
WorldPride festivities
in 2025, beating out runner-up
host city Washington, DC. It will
be the fi rst time WorldPride will be
in East Asia.
InterPride, which oversees
WorldPride festivities, announced
the host city on November 13 following
a vote by members during
the 2021 General Meeting and
World Conference. More than 300
member organizations took part
in voting, workshops, and other
meetings during an eight-day virtual
gathering.
“The WorldPride Taiwan Team
2025 would like to thank all before
us who lit the way, to thank
InterPride who built this wonderful
organization and platform, and
thank our supporters who have
bestowed this amazing opportunity
for Taiwan and Asia,” Darien
Chen, a spokesperson for Kaohsiung
Pride, said in a written statement.
“This is the beginning of a
four-year journey that we plan to
ignite change in Asia, to promote
InterPride’s mission, and to advance
human rights in the world.”
This year, WorldPride was held
in two cities across separate countries
— Copenhagen, Denmark
and Malmö, Sweden — and it will
be in Sydney, Australia in 2023.
The announcement unveiling
the host city for 2025, however,
sparked controversy after Inter-
Pride described Taiwan as a “region.”
While China has maintained
Kaohsiung, Taiwan will be the host of WorldPride in 2025.
that Taiwan is part of China, it is
governed independently — and the
United States recently called for
Taiwan to be represented at the
United Nations (UN). The American
government has also provided
arms sales to the island, though
the US has stopped short of recognizing
Taiwan as an independent
country thanks to a decades-old
“One China” policy.
Lance Chen-Hayes, an out gay
Taiwanese-American activist who
helped mobilize New Yorkers to
support marriage equality efforts
in Taiwan several years ago, was
among those who turned to Facebook
to push back against Inter-
Pride’s framing of Taiwan.
“Taiwan is a sovereign country,
not a region of an oppressive
regime that’s hostile to LGBTQ+
people,” Chen-Hayes wrote. “Please
change your language.”
InterPride subsequently released
a new statement November
16 claiming that their terminology
in the original announcement was
intended to conform to UN policies
pertaining to organizations seeking
“consultative status” with the
UN. The updated statement did not
mention the word “region.”
“Over the past two years, Inter-
Pride has been going through an application
process to gain consultative
status with the United Nations
to better serve the global LGBTQIA+
community,” InterPride wrote on
Facebook. “At the same time, we
have considered very carefully the
overwhelming feedback we recently
received. InterPride stands for the
human rights of all our members,
including the right to self-determination.
InterPride would like to congratulate
Kaohsiung Pride, who has
won the bid to host WorldPride 2025
in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.”
Chen-Hayes, who said he plans to
move back to Taiwan next month,
pointed to what he described as a
shift in global attitudes towards
China as of late, with more countries
embracing Taiwan’s signifi -
cant role in the international community
while “refusing to kowtow”
to China’s “bullying behaviors.”
“However, this is a delicate
dance because Taiwan can still be
the ultimate recipient and victim of
China’s aggressions,” he said.
The selection of Kaohsiung City is
notable, Chen-Hayes said, because
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/ABOVE THE SKY
the local LGBTQ community in
Taiwan has pushed to direct more
support and resources for LGBTQ
individuals outside of Taipei.
Taiwan’s LGBTQ community
endured a hard-fought bid to gain
marriage rights, culminating in
the legalization of marriage equality
in 2019. Taiwan’s Constitutional
Court struck down a ban on samesex
marriage in 2017 and gave
lawmakers two years to pass a law
allowing LGBTQ couples to marry,
but religious conservatives took advantage
of that two-year window by
fl ooding the country with millions of
dollars in ads aiming to thwart the
momentum. In 2018, citizens voted
to defi ne marriage as between a
man and a woman, prompting LGBTQ
activists to organize counterfundraisers
— including one held at
the Stonewall Inn — to add support
to the marriage cause.
In 2019 — like the court asked
— lawmakers ultimately approved
the marriage equality bill, making
Taiwan the fi rst in Asia to establish
marriage equality and marking a
shift in the international LGBTQ
community’s public perception of
the country.
“It is wonderful to have the InterPride
selection committee vote
for Taiwan to be the host of World-
Pride in 2025,” Chen-Hayes said.
“This means that they have recognized
the signifi cance of Taiwan in
the global LGBTQ+ movement.”
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