U.S. LGBTQI+ Envoy to Speak at InterPride Event despite Group’s Snub of Taiwan

The State Department’s top official on LGBTQI+ issues is participating in an event hosted by InterPride, a non-governmental group that organizes pride parades, just months after the group refused to use Taiwan’s name in the title of an event that was consequently canceled by Taiwanese organizers.

U.S. special envoy for the rights of LGBTQI+ persons Jessica Stern will participate in WorldPride, an annual pride event this week, the State Department announced yesterday. This year’s event is taking place in Sydney, and Stern will participate in talks and hold meetings during her trip, which will run through March 5. But the choice to join that festival might raise some eyebrows in Taiwan.

Last August, local organizers of the 2025 edition of WorldPride — then slated to take place in Kaohsiung, Taiwan — abruptly revoked their decision to host the event in the southern Taiwan city. Organizers in Kaohsiung said they withdrew their support of the event after InterPride provided “abrupt notice” that they must call the event “WorldPride Kaohsiung,” rather than include the country’s name.

For its part, InterPride said on Twitter that it was “surprised” to learn of the event’s cancellation and claimed that it had a “tradition of using the host city name.”

Taiwan’s government issued an unusually blunt statement hitting the refusal to use the country’s name.

“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. Not only does the decision disrespect Taiwan’s rights and diligent efforts, it also harms Asia’s vast LGBTIQ+ community,” Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in its August 2022 statement.

The fracas surrounding the event’s use of “Taiwan” in its name had been going on for months before that public break. In 2021, after awarding Kaohsiung the event, InterPride reportedly listed Taiwan as a region.

Eventually, following talks with the Taiwanese foreign ministry, InterPride relented and agreed to use the name “WorldPride Taiwan 2025.” InterPride then posted a series of tweets, in which it reaffirmed that it would use the name WorldPride Taiwan 2025.

InterPride also suggested that its reluctance to use the name Taiwan without referring to the country as a “region” was due to its efforts to gain consultative status at the U.N. Refusing to align with U.N. requirements, the group wrote, “would prevent InterPride from gaining United Nations consultative status.”

The thread didn’t explain why working with Taiwan would prevent it from receiving credentials at the U.N., but Beijing has systematically blocked Taiwan from engaging at the U.N. at all levels, even persuading the organization to prohibit individuals with Taiwanese passports from accessing U.N. grounds. The U.N. secretariat, like InterPride, uses language that appears to situate Taiwan as a region of China, and Beijing regularly uses its sway to block non-governmental organizations that it deems critical of the Chinese Communist Party from receiving credentials.

It’s not clear whether Stern’s participation in the event is meant to reflect approval of InterPride’s concession to Beijing’s position to secure U.N. credentials, or, at least, an elevation of her portfolio over the Biden administration’s efforts to shore up its relationship with Taipei — and State has not yet responded to National Review’s request for comment. InterPride also has not responded to a request for comment. Taiwan’s diplomatic office in New York referred NR to the foreign ministry’s statement from last year.