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A week ago China's first gay pageant was cancelled, on orders from the police.

The event had been hailed as a new chapter of openness towards the gay community in China, where homosexuality was illegal until 1997 and defined as mental disorder until 2001.

Here three gay men in China describe the pressures they have to live with and the compromises they have to make.

Michael Tsai, 23, restaurant manager, Beijing

I was going to be the host for the gay pageant Mr Gay China, but unfortunately the government has once again oppressed its people silently. It would have been a wonderful step but there is much more fear than understanding.

Although I wouldn't call it discrimination, there's definitely a pressure to conformity in Chinese society. The goal is to to marry and produce male offspring. Since the Chinese are allowed to have only one child there is even more pressure to conform.

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China will not send a delegate to the Worldwide Mr Gay pageant next month, an organiser said Monday, after police blocked an event to choose a Chinese contestant.

Police shut down the first-ever Mr Gay China pageant just before the event started Friday, but organisers had planned to privately select a candidate from the eight contestants. They have now reversed their decision, so no one from China will compete at the pageant in Oslo, Norway.

"This was a very carefully considered decision," said Ben Zhang, a pageant organizer. "We just cannot send anyone, the organisers and competitors came to this decision together."

Zhang declined to elaborate on the reasons for not sending a delegate.

Worldwide Mr Gay Executive Producer Tore Aasheim told The Associated Press that he was "saddened and surprised that the Chinese authorities took such steps."

"China once again shows that they don't honour human rights," he said.

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On November 20th-22nd , the 3rd annual Lala Camp took place in the beautiful city of Guilin in Southern China. "Lala" is a local identity embraced by Chinese-speaking communities, used here as an umbrella term to include lesbians, bisexual women, and women-loving transgender people (LBTs).

Organized by Chinese Lala Alliance (CLA), Lala Camp gathered over 50 lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth organizers representing 20 Lala organizations from 21 cities across Mainland China, as well as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the U.S. Through two and a half days of intensive training, conference participants developed skills, shared experiences, and affirmed their commitment to lala activism.

Youth Can Change the World
With a focus on the 2009 theme of "Youth Power," attendees explored their identities and expanded their understandings of LBT communities. Furthermore, they learned valuable organizational skills from experienced organizers and found inspiration and support from fellow activists. Workshop contents included: "Gender and Sexual Diversity", "Youth Speaks: Our Own Stories", "LGBT Movements Around the World", "Showcasing Lala Youth Activism", "Democratic Decision-Making and Meeting Facilitation", "Shattering Myths and Stereotypes", "Sex Education", "Media Production", "How to Organize on Campuses and in Communities", and "Putting Skills to Practice: Future Plans." A choice of parallel workshops was offered in order to meet varying needs, and small group discussions and interactive styles further improved the workshops' effectiveness.

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China's first ever visual art exhibition on gender diversity-DIFFERENCE·GENDER-was inaugurated in the Civilian Film Studio, Songzhuang Art District, Beijing.

'Hiding in a deep alley doesn't dim a good wine store's attraction.'

This Chinese old saying probably illustrates quite a bit of the scene on the past Sunday, June 14th 2009, when China's first ever visual art exhibition on gender diversity-DIFFERENCE·GENDER-was inaugurated in the Civilian Film Studio, Songzhuang Art District, Beijing.

Nearly five hundred attendees ignored the swink of the two hours' bus ride from downtown and the complicity of following the map that leads to the reclusive venue. They swarmed into this art den, a private yard built of pristine grey bricks and humbly withdraws into the outskirt village leisure far far away from the hustle and bustle of China's skyscraper booming capital. In despite of the audience's diversity of age, gender, race, nationality and sexual orientation, their passion for free expression of art was invariable, and that was what turned the opening ceremony into something no less than a fiesta to celebrate the on-going Gay Pride Month in the otherwise gay-pride-impossible Middle Kingdom.

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