Ep 162 | Taiwan Hosts WorldPride 2025: Our Conversation with Darien Chen and Amazin LeThi

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

In November it was officially announced that Taiwan had been chosen to host WorldPride 2025. The Kaohsiung Pride Team won the bid over Washington D.C. to host World Pride Day. My guest on this episode is Darien Chen, the founder of WorldPride Taiwan 2025.

WorldPride 2025 will be first time that a WorldPride will be held in East Asia and this is exciting news indeed! In fact, Amazin LeThi, a global LGBTQIA+ advocate and one of the first Asian ambassadors for WorldPride at Copenhagen 2021 reached out to me not long after hearing the announcement. I invited her to join us in this episode. We'll have her back on another episode to share her personal story and to talk about her LGBTQIA+ advocacy work.

I'd like to congratulate the team that worked so hard to secure the bid for Taiwan to host WorldPride 2025. I know they have a lot pf work ahead of them and we'll definitely check in on their progress in the future.

Darien was previously on episode 82 of Talking Taiwan, talking about how he organized the Taiwan Pride Parade for the World in June of last year when Taiwan one of the safest places to be during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here's a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

• Taiwan Pride Parade for the World in 2020
• How Kaohsiung Pride is the only pride organization from Taiwan that is a member of InterPride
• There hasn't been a previous bid from an Asian city or country to host WorldPride 2025
• How Asia comprises 60% of the world's population
• How Kaohsiung Pride was able to get waivers for 2 of the 13 qualifications to host WorldPride 2025
• The application process to host WorldPride 2025 which was an 11-month process
• The naming issue that came up for Taiwan after winning the bid to host WorldPride 2025
• The parallel between Taiwan's position in the global arena and the LGBTQIA's within mainstream society
• InterPride's application with the UN for consultative status
• Why Kaohsiung Pride ended up hosting WorldPride 2025 instead of Taipei or other cities in Taiwan
• How there are 15 different Pride event held all over Taiwan
• How events planned for WorldPride 2025 includes Taipei and Kaohsiung, and other parts of Taiwan
• How WorldPride 2025 will include organizations and events like Taipei Pride which is essentially a protest and Taiwan TransPride hosted by Taiwan Gay Hotline
• What other cities were bidding to host WorldPride 2025
• In the end Kaohsiung was competing with Washington D.C. to host WorldPride 2025
• How June 2025 will be the 50th Anniversary of Pride in Washington D.C.
• How Taiwan was voted by Muslim women as the safest place
• Darien's involvement with Mr. Gay Taiwan and Mr. Gay World
• What it means to Darien personally that Taiwan is hosting WorldPride 2025
• How the Kaohsiung Taiwan WorldPride 2025 committee didn't raise any money to help with the bid
• Now that gay marriage has been legalized in Taiwan, why is there still a need for Pride events
• What other WorldPride events Darien has attended
• What other WorldPride events Amazin has attended
• The benefit of having virtual events at WorldPride as they did at Copenhagen's WorldPride 2021
• The importance of bringing WorldPride to the Asia region
• How the events being planned for WorldPride 2025 includes a "Taiwanese wedding-style banquet" to raise money for InterPride
• How a reenactment of the Fire Island Invasion is going to happen during WorldPride 2025 in Kaohsiung
• Darien and Amazin's connection to Australia
• Sydney WorldPride 2023
• The challenges faced by LGBTQ Asians in Asia vs. in western countries
• The coming out experience for LGBTQ persons in eastern vs. western societies
• How the concept of coming out is a very western idea
• Coming out vs. inviting someone into your story
• The musical artists that Darien would like to invite to perform at WorldPride 2025
• How the Taiwan Pride logo was created by a Taiwanese Kaohsiung-based graphic designer Bauer Hung (飽爾)

Related Links:

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https://talkingtaiwan.com/taiwan-hosts-worldpride-2025-our-conversation-with-darien-chen-and-amazin-lethi-ep-162/