This week China is celebrating its very first Gay Pride event in Shanghai, a Pride festival that has been a long time coming and has stalled at the gate more than once when local authorities closed down previous attempts at a Pride Event and prosecuted those involved with charges of hooliganism. Surprisingly, China’s first Pride Event illuminates interesting parallels with America’s own attitude to homosexuality.

The newspaper China Daily is calling the event one of “profound significance” and a “showcase of the country’s social progress”. There will be club events, film screenings and art shows as well as, notably, panel discussions on the topic of homosexuality where professors from local universities will discuss and debate the history and relevance of China’s LGBT community and their contribution to society.

However, there will not be a Pride parade, with lawyers warning it would be a step too far, but the significance of the festival itself should not be diminished, and the scale of the events taking place within private establishments throughout Shanghai is a very real achievement. The very fact that a mainstream paper would endorse the event so heartily with a front page piece on Gay Pride is a testament to that progress.

China’s approach to homosexuality has always been a complicated one. Homosexuality is not illegal in China. It was accredited as a mental illness until 2001 but was not legislated against specifically (sodomy was decriminalized in 1997, but same-sex adoption is banned) and can largely be explained by the American military policy which allows homosexuals to serve in the military so long as they do not disclose their sexuality: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. 

Actively condemning homosexuality isn’t often seen in China, but promoting it as a viable and normal way of life is even more rare. The authorities maintain silence and allow the lower echelons of their law enforcement to deal with any incidents of “promotion”, as they did with attempts at previous Pride events.

A prime example of this could be seen during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Anyone who follows gay rights or gay culture will immediately be aware of a young man named Matthew Mitcham.

Matthew Mitcham is an Australian diver who went to the Beijing Olympics knowing that the Chinese team was exceptionally strong– throughout the run-up to Beijing they had been dominant in various qualifying events, to the point of seeming unbeatable. Needless to say, they were heroes in China. 

During the final 10 meter platform diving event in Beijing, and at the last possible opportunity, Mitcham performed an immense final dive, achieving a score of 4 perfect tens and therein taking gold from China’s diver Luxin Zhou. Matthew Mitcham was just twenty years old at the time. He’s also gay. During his celebrations he ran to his partner in the stands and hugged him, and, throughout various press shots and interviews, often made references to his boyfriend Lachlan. 

China’s news coverage of the event notably omitted all references to Mitcham’s homosexuality. It should also be cited that NBC did a similar thing, choosing not to show Mitcham hugging his partner, nor broadcasting statements where Mitcham made reference to Lachlan and his importance, in spite of covering the family members of other Gold medalists extensively.

As the aforementioned news article notes, what is represented in Shanghai is a moment of progress for China’s urban LGBT’s, but in rural areas, many people still perceive homosexuality as a mental disorder.

In film, censors in China are still quick to restrict gay cinema and homosexuality as a theme, most infamously banning Ang Lee’s adaptation of the Annie Proulx short story Brokeback Mountain (some cinemas in the US also refused to show the picture). Director Lou Ye, who has been banned by Chinese authorities from making film for five years, has also brought a new glimpse of gay life in China to this years film festivals in spite of restrictions imposed upon him.

Interestingly, although gay marriage petitions to the Chinese government have never been approved, marriage in China has not been defined as being between one man and one woman unlike in the U.S.A – gay rights groups point to the fact that China does not legislate against homosexuals as a positive sign, clearly indicating the possibility of change and that gay friendly reform is achievable.

So what does Gay Pride mean in China? To China’s gay community, it’s more than just a celebration of diversity. It is an expression of change, of a nation gradually opening up and letting the rest of the world in, as well as letting its citizens stand in the sun for who and what they are.

And what does China’s growing acceptance of Gay Pride mean to the U.S. and the Western World? Surely it is a wake-up call overturn restrictive legislature like the Defense of Marriages Act and Proposition 8 and a reminder that we are, essentially, one global community seeking equality.

*Update: Since yesterday, news has reached us that two events including a film screening have been prohibited due to officials warning of “severe consequences” should they go ahead. Other Pride events have been allowed to continue unrestricted, leaving the organizers frustrated at a lack of consistency. The exact reason for the intervention is unknown. More details to come as we get them.