Shanghai PRIDE 2009 Gay and Lesbian Festival in China Special Report by Utopia

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ShanghaiPRIDE
June 7-14, 2009

all images are copyright © 2009 by Utopia Asia.
Please contact us for permission to reproduce.

Shanghai Pride Week kicked off with a film screening
and dinner at Vargas Grill on June 7.

"Shanghai Pride 2009 should be a source of great encouragement to the tens of millions of 'comrades', as homosexual men and women are called in the Chinese mainland. Meanwhile, the festival, though bereft of the massive street parade that is a feature of gay and lesbian festivals elsewhere, is also sending a strong signal to the 1.3 billion Chinese about greater acceptance and tolerance. The Shanghai festival is still relatively low-key and on a smaller scale compared with similar events abroad. Yet it is an event of profound significance for the country and the world." -- Editorial excerpt, China Daily, June 10, 2009

ShanghaiPRIDE's international team of organizers welcoming the crowd at the final weekend Pride Day on Sat, June 13. They did a fantastic, heroic job coordinating the week-long events and fielding the barage of media interest over Shanghai's first major GLBT festival.

Pride Day was hosted at Cotton and more than a thousand people attended the all-day events.

The afternoon began with a hot body contest.

The winner and crowd-pleaser (in center).

Other events during the week included art exhibitions, panel discussions, open mic performances, wine tasting, AIDS/HIV education and outreach, a karaoke competition and multiple sporting events.

Pride Day continued with traditional Chinese dances, opera, charity auction and after parties.

Represented at tables with educational materials were organizations dealing with HIV/AIDS, sex workers, lesbian groups and transgender groups.

"The ongoing Shanghai Pride 2009, the largest festival of the gay and lesbian community on the Chinese mainland, is a good showcase of the country's social progress alongside the three decades of economic boom." -- Editorial excerpt, China Daily, June 10, 2009

For more information about gay Shanghai, please click here