Organizers of Beijing's first gay festival on Sunday denounced a police raid on the event, saying it showed the government's attitude towards homosexuals was still discriminatory.
The three-day "First Beijing Gay and Lesbian Culture Festival" was scheduled to begin Friday and was to offer a weekend of films, discussions and performances to promote awareness of gay issues.
Organizers were expecting about 5,000 participants but on Wednesday, Beijing police told them they could not hold the festival at the Yan Club, a venue in the "798" neighborhood of art galleries in Beijing.
They secretly switched to the smaller On/Off bar in Beijing's Sanlitun bar district but police found the group and after the opening ceremony was about to begin, dozens of police officers barged in and ordered about 100 participants to leave.
Cui Ze'en, an assistant professor at the Beijing Film Academy, who is openly gay and is a key organizer, said the police action showed local governments in China were still not accepting of gays.
"We thought this year had been a better year in terms of the government's tolerance of gay people's activities," Cui said.
"But what happened to the festival shows many local governments' attitudes still have not changed."
Participants on Friday went to restaurants to hold their discussions and over the weekend continued to hold activities on a small scale. They are reproducing online the exhibits and performances.
Low-key gay pride activities were held in Beijing and Shanghai earlier this year without any problems.
The Beijing AIDS awareness group Aizhixing Institute of Health Education, which provided funding for the festival, on Sunday issued an open letter on behalf of the festival's organizers, criticizing the police move.
"Our activity does not go against or beyond any law of the People's Republic of China," said the letter.
"The fact is that homosexual culture and our unofficial cultural activities are still subjected to the forceful intervention of the government despite its claim to have a `reform and open' policy."
In a nation where homosexuality was listed as a mental disorder until 2001, it is still largely a taboo subject due to a mix of traditional Chinese conservatism and communist prejudice against gays.
"Beijing has a lot of homosexuals, but the gay community remains a marginalized group," said AIDS activist Hu Jia.
"They face a lot of difficulties. They're not accepted by their families and friends. They face a lot of pressure and are forced to get married. These are marriages without love. This lack of acceptance from society ends up hurting them and others as well."
Attitudes may be slowly changing, at least among the people.
A top university, Shanghai's Fudan Uni-versity, was overwhelmed this year by students' requests to take a new course on homosexuality.
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