The first pride parade in Taiwan was held in 1996.
On December 21, 1996, a march for women’s rights was held in Taipei, Taiwan because a feminist was murdered.
On the same day, 300 gays participated to demand gay rights as well, making it Taiwan’s first pride parade.
You may also be interested to know the first pride parade in the world was a result of the 1969 Stonewall riots.
Taiwan LGBT Pride is held in October every year.
It’s held on the last Saturday of October every year.
Most pride parades in other countries are held in June to honor Stonewall.
The 10 biggest LGBTQ pride celebrations are mostly held in June / Made by JKL SEO
How many people attend Taiwan LGBT Pride every year?
These data are based on Taiwan’s media reports and Wikipedia.
- 2003: About 2,000 people.
- 2004: About 5,000 people.
- 2005: No data.
- 2006: More than 10,000 people.
- 2007: About 15,000 people.
- 2008: More than 18,000 people.
- 2009: About 25,000 people.
- 2010: About 30,000 people.
- 2011: About 50,000 people.
- 2012: About 65,000 people.
- 2013: About 67,000 people.
- 2014: About 65,000 people.
- 2015: About 78,000 people.
- 2016: About 82,000 people.
- 2017: About 123,000 people.
- 2018: About 137,000 people.
- 2019: About 200,000 people. (The first parade since same-sex marriage was legalized in Taiwan.)
- 2020: About 130,000 people.
- 2021: About 47,000 people. (Held online due to the pandemic.)
- 2022: About 120,000 people.
- 2023: About 176,000 people.
The number of participants in Taiwan LGBT Pride / Made by JKL SEO
Theme of Taiwan LGBT Pride every year.
- 2003: （ Chinese: 看見同性戀 ）
- 2004: Awaken citizen conscious. （ Chinese: 喚起公民意識 ）
- 2005: Be together! （ Chinese: 同心協力 101 ）
- 2006: Get together and organize a family! （ Chinese: 一同去加油 ）
- 2007: Rainbow power （ Chinese: 彩虹有夠力 ）
- 2008: Run the rainbow way （ Chinese: 驕傲向前行 ）
- 2009: Love out Loud （ Chinese: 同志愛很大 ）
- 2010: Out and vote （ Chinese: 投同志政策一票 ）
- 2011: LGBT fight back, discrimination get out! （ Chinese: 彩虹征戰，歧視滾蛋 ）
- 2012: I do! Do I? Equal rights to marriage, diversity in partnership （ Chinese: 革命婚姻 ── 婚姻平權，伴侶多元 ）
- 2013: Make LGBT visible 2.0, the voice of sexual sufferer （ Chinese: 看見同性戀 2.0 正視性難民，鬥陣來相挺 ）
- 2014: Walk in queers’ shoes （ Chinese: 擁抱性 / 別，認同差異 ）
- 2015: Act who you are, not your age （ Chinese: 年齡不設限 解放暗櫃 青春自主 ）
- 2016: Honor diversity, like you mean it! （ Chinese: 一起 FUN 出來 ── 打破假友善，你我撐自在 ）
- 2017: Make love, not war— sex-ed is the way to go （ Chinese: 澀澀性平打開開 多元教慾跟上來 ）
- 2018: Tell your story, vote for equality （ Chinese: 性平攻略由你說，人人 18 投彩虹 ）
- 2019: Together, make Taiwan better （ Chinese: 同志好厝邊 ）
- 2020: Beauty, my own way （Chinese: 成人之美 ）
- 2021: I (love) being out! （ Chinese: 友善日常 in Taiwan ）
- 2022: An unlimited future （ Chinese: 無・限・性 ── 解構框架，性 / 別無限 ）
- 2023: Stand with diversity （ Chinese: 與多元同行 ）
The old man who always waves the rainbow flag on the highest place in Taiwan LGBT Pride is the pioneer for gay rights in Taiwan.
Chi Chia-Wei (Dayway Chief) is the first openly gay in Taiwan.
In 1986, he went to the notary office of Taipei District Court to apply for a marriage with another man and was rejected.
Since then, he has been fighting for the right of same-sex marriage over 30 years. He continued to fight for it through petitions, civil litigation, administrative litigation, and asking the justices to interpret the Constitution.
At the same time, he is also involved in promoting AIDS prevention and providing free HIV screening.
Taiwan’s pride parade is not only held in Taipei.
It is also held in Miaoli, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Ilan.
There are other city also hosting pride parade in Taiwan./Made by JKL SEO
As the organizer of Taiwan LGBT Pride, Taiwan Rainbow Civil Action Association was only established in 2012.
Since 2003, the event has become bigger every year, it’s beyond everyone’s imagination.
The pride parade needs an organization to handle all matters related to the parade, and they need to make fundraising transparent and institutionalized,so a bunch of volunteers established it.
Taiwan LGBT Pride is Asia’s biggest pride parade.
The first parade after same-sex marriage was legalized in Taiwan held in 2019 had more than 200,000 people attended, making it the largest gay pride event in Asia.
The biggest pride “parade” in the world is the São Paulo Gay Pride Parade in Brazil.
Screenshot from Chinese Television News.
Taiwan LGBT Pride was the world’s biggest pride celebration in 2020 because of the pandemic.
During the coronavirus era, most of the gay pride events have been canceled or moved online.
Taiwan is one of the few countries that could hold offline activity.
As a result, Taiwan LGBT Pride was the world’s biggest pride celebration in 2020.
WorldPride 2025 was going to be hosted by Taiwan but it has been canceled.
According to the WorldPride 2025 Taiwan Preparation Committee’s statement, they were unable to reach a consensus with InterPride.
The main difference of opinion between the two is about the event’s naming.
Also, InterPride had concerns about whether Taiwan has the capacity to host the international event, so eventually the WorldPride 2025 will be hosted in Washington, DC.
Screenshot from Yahoo! News.
Taiwan is the first Asian country to pass same-sex marriage law.
It only took 23 years from Taiwan’s democratically elected president in 1996 to the legalization of gay marriage in 2019.
A big milestone for gay rights in Asia, but the association “Coalition for the Happiness of Our Next Generation” believed this was a serious violation of the constitution.
According to research, less than 50% of Taiwanese people can accept that their children are gay.
Although Taiwan has held the pride parade for over 20 years, according to the Taiwan Equality Campaign’s research only 49.8% of people can accept that their children are gay.
That is why even though Taiwan has passed the same-sex marriage law, we still need to hold Taiwan LGBT Pride to eliminate discrimination against gays and value gay rights.
By the way, according to the research, more than 60% of Taiwanese people accept that their colleagues, classmates, bosses, or doctors are gay.