There’s nothing quite like having a finger on the pulse of a nation!
You may have a point.

The gay community as a whole tends to be very quick to judge which race someone is dating and non-chalantly come out with phrases pointing out their preferences for specific races to the point of fetishism, and distain for other gay people of certain races.(and yes i am aware that this is a generalisation).

I’m neither for or against adult beauty pageants, but I thought this pageant happening in China, where homosexuality has been decriminalized in 2001, was a quick step in the right direction because the contestants were expected to do more than walk around in Speedos; they needed to present themselves as healthy and wholesome, thinking human beings….anything but mentally ill… deserving respect and dignity, just like us.

And Niki is right about homophobia being pretty entrenched in Chinese society. I know more than one Chinese GLBT friend of mine told me that the homophobia is very firmly entrenched–and many of the people who were the most homophobic were not Christians.

But I think you are exaggerating a bit if you think that beauty pageants are some kind of alien western concept to the Chinese. The fact is the Chinese love beauty pageants!

Heck you turn on the TV here in China and they’re everywhere; Children entering Disney princess pageants, modelling beauty pageants and Miss Hooter’s China pageant. China has even hosted the Miss. World pageant 4 times.

I wasn’t really bothered about this event other then the fact that one of the contestants was an aquaintance of mine, but I’m sad the police choose to act this way. But again not suprised, this event courted alot of international media attention and that always makes government officals nervous.

In the many years that I’ve been in China gay bars, clubs and events have been raided only when something is beeing promoted to high heaven and that some bored homophobic government official hears about it and decides it’s wrong and shuts it down.

In China you can do whatever you want, be with who ever you want just don’t get up on a soapbox about it cause that’s when they smash you down. On any topic! Not just homosexuality.

The entire society is closed – not just gay society. Google just announced they are likely to close in China because of hackers from the Communist Party monitoring email addresses of the Party’s opponents.

You simply cannot apply the same standards to China as you do to a Western country.

The very idea of a beauty pageant is a western one and I think this may have as much to do with the Communist Party shutting it down as the gay angle.

And beauty pageants are a horrible western invention. Have a look at those vile child beauty pageants in the US to see how truly hideous these events can be.

Notably, China including HK still has a culture that doesn’t exclude older people, it is to be hoped that this attitude will extend into the gay “community”

I doubt the feminist movememt would have celebrated the 1st time a a woman was allowed to enter Miss World.

Why should anyone be excited that a gay man is allowed to be judged on how he looks in swimwear. If that is ‘progress’ then I’m perfectly happy for China to stay where they are.

What would be next – a gay media obsessed solely with appearance and clubbing and youth (ooops – you mean like we have in the UK?)

It may have been a “load of old nonsense” *for you*, Mr. Simon, but in Beijing it was important *to them*.

The cancellation was a setback to the recognition in China of a sexual identity that has traditionally been problematic. I can’t see the humanity in denying gay people self-expression in that way, if it doesn’t harm anyone.

A beauty pageant is a load of old nonsense. It is meaningless and ridiculous and demeaning to the particuipants.

And the fact that this pageant was state controlled is a pile of rubbish.