Taiwan Pride Parade of the World: An Interview with Organizer Darien Chen

3 min readJun 29, 2020

On June 28, 2020, Taiwan Pride Parade for the World will be held in Taipei at 3pm to celebrate Pride Month and the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots. While in-person Pride events have been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it will likely be one of the few if only in-person Pride events to be held in the world during Pride Month. I spoke with the organizer of Taiwan Pride Parade for the World, Darien Chen about what motivated him to organize the event.

Darien also told me about how he participated in Mr. Gay World as Mr. Gay Taiwan and how he hopes that the parade will give people around the world hope and keep the torch and spirit of Pride alive.

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

How Darien competed as the first Mr. Gay Taiwan at Mr. Gay World
His involvement in the first Gay Pride Parade in Taiwan
His involvement with the NTU (National Taiwan University) gay student club GayChat
What motivated Darien to organize Taiwan Pride Parade for the World
The challenges and obstacles he faced in trying to organize the event
How Taiwan will be the only place in the world that will be able to host a live in-person Gay Pride Parade in June (worldwide Pride Month), on the anniversary of the June 28, 1969 Stonewall riots
That there are several Pride parades/events organized at the local level in Taiwan’s various counties
Activities planned on the day of the event
If there will be a live stream of the event
Darien’s co-organizer Mamasan drag queen Magnolia La Manga
How this rally will compare to the annual Gay Pride Parade that takes place in Taiwan in October
What the annual Gay Pride Parade that takes place in Taiwan in October is like and how it compares to the Gay Pride March in New York and other major cities
Taiwan Pride Parade for the World marks the 50th anniversary of first Gay Pride Parade that was held in Chicago, Illinois on June 27, 1970

Related Links:

Taiwan Pride Parade for the World Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/277051990005355/

A Live stream of the event (Taiwan Pride Parade for the World) will be available on the Taiwan Pride Parade for the World Facebook event page or on Cookie the Drag Queen’s YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2Vr2VW6

Here’s where you can watch Global Pride 2020: https://www.globalpride2020.org/watch/

GLOBAL PRIDE 2020: COVID-19 relief PERFORMANCES WITH TODRICK HALL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HhzcnTFfjE

Mr. Gay World: https://mrgayworld.com/

Anastasia Lin, Miss World Canada 2016: http://www.anastasialin.com/bio

A Taipei Times article about NTU’s (National Taiwan University) student club GayChat: https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2015/09/27/2003628678

Pride Parade on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_parade

Video Highlights from Taiwan Pride Parade for the World