Taiwan has pointed the finger at politics for the cancellation of the worldwide Pride celebration

Following reports that the organisers of WorldPride 2025 Taiwan asked that the term “Taiwan” be deleted from the event’s title, Taiwan on Friday cited “political issues” as the reason for the event’s cancellation.

Because China considers the democratically governed island to be a part of its territory and bristles at any suggestion that Taiwan is a separate country, Taiwan takes part in international organisations such as the Olympics under the name “Chinese Taipei.” This is done to avoid any potential political conflicts with China. After successfully competing and earning the permission to do so from the international LGBTQ rights organisation InterPride, the city of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan was scheduled to host WorldPride 2025 Taiwan.

A reference to the island being referred to as a “region” was removed the previous year as a result of protests in Taiwan. This language gives the impression that Taiwan is not a nation. However, the organisers of the Kaohsiung event said that InterPride had recently and “suddenly” requested that they modify the name of the event to “Kaohsiung,” taking the term “Taiwan” out of the title.

According to Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this would have been the very first WorldPride event to take place anywhere in East Asia. “Taiwan gravely regrets that InterPride, owing to political reasons, has unilaterally rejected the mutually agreed upon consensus and ruptured a relationship of collaboration and trust, which has led to this situation,” the statement stated.

Although having sexual intercourse with someone of the same gender is not against the law in China, getting married to someone of the same gender is, and the Chinese government has been clamping down on representations of LGBTQ individuals in the media as well as the community’s usage of social media.