Taiwan blames ‘political considerations’ for cancelling global Pride event

Taipei has blamed “political considerations” for the cancellation of WorldPride 2025 Taiwan after organisers insisted the name of the island state be removed from the title.

Taiwan’s southern city of Kaohsiung had been due to host the event after winning the right to do so from global LGBT+ rights group InterPride.

However, the Kaohsiung organisers said InterPride had recently “suddenly” 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 Taiwan and the Taiwan gay community. Therefore it is decided to terminate the project before signing the contract,” said the Kaohsiung organisers.

InterPride said in a statement it was “surprised to learn” the news and, although it was 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’,” it added.

This 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,” Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

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

Taiwan usually participates in global competitions such as the Olympics as “Chinese Taipei” to avoid political problems with China, which views the democratically governed island as its own territory and bristles at anything that suggests it is a separate country.

Additional reporting by outlets