Mar,+Derek+10


 * A Gay Pageant in China Canceled**

On Friday, January 15, 2010 there was a gay pageant that was supposed to happen but was canceled by the police. It was shut down an hour before it was about to start at the Lan Club in Beijing, China. Eight police officiers walked into the club and canceled the event due to the organizers of the events lacked the necessary permits needed to have the event. People that were participating in this event hoped that this event would show people in China the amount of gay people in China and to raise awarness about them. Homosexuality was not allowed in China and was considered illegal until 1997 but after that in 2001 it was not considered an mental illness. There was about 150 people who turned up to watch the pageant, most of them came from media organizations. The eight men who was participtating in the pageant and trying to win the Mr. Gay China title, the winner would have been the first Chinese entrant for the worldwide Mr. Gay competition that was next month being held in Oslo.

Sources: BBC: [] The New York Times: []

Some similarities that I noticed between the two articles is that they both had similar titles. BBC's title was "Gay pageant 'canceled by police' in China" and The New York Time's title was "Chinese Gay Pageant is Shut Down". The two titles were pretty close to each other and both talked about the same thing. They both had quotes from Ben Zhang, the organizer of the event. Also both articles talked a little about the history of gay people in China. Some differences that I noticed was the New York Times went into a little more detail about the history of gay related information than the BBC article. Also the NY times were specific on this one part about where in Norway was the worldwide Mr. Gay competition that was taking place later next month. Also the BBC talked about how many people were at the event and had a quote from a contestant that the New York Times didn't have.

My opinion on this event is that its horrible that the event was shut down, but it was because the event wasn't legal so I understand why it was shut down. Though this event would've been a major breakthrough for gay people all around China, it was shut down because it was an illegal event due to one of the organizers not having the right permit for that event. Though gay people and all things relating to being gay or is gay is not popular in China, it would be great if the event had happen so it could raise awareness among regular people in China.