Eye On Gay Shanghai: Shanghai Pride

Although June is the designated month of Gay Pride events all over the world, Shanghai will show its Pride this week by holding several events at Shanghai's own, one-of-a-kind gay dance club/bar/motel multiplex, PinkHome. All of the events are the result of much hard work by Shanghai's own, (and also) one-of-a-kind organization, Shanghai's LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) group. As for the events, there won't be a parade or hopefully any tear gas, curses, or violence.

Shanghai's LGBT Pride kicks off tomorrow night at 7:00pm with a discussion about being gay in Shanghai and China in general, including the discussion of the difficult experience that some Chinese gay people have coming out to their friends and family. After the discussion, two Canadian filmmakers, Helena and Melina, will give a free workshop about the process of film-making and editing. Aspiring filmmakers will get the chance to make the own movies and show them the following week, which sounds very cool.

Of course, it wouldn't be Gay Pride without a big party, so sandwiched between the film workshop and the film screening at the end of the festival, will be a "Seven Deadly Sins" party on the conspicuous date 7/7/07, also at PinkHome.

Here is the complete schedule of events for Shanghai Pride:
Thursday, July 5: LGBT Discussion @ PinkHome, 7PM
Thursday, July 5: LGBT Film Workshop @ PinkHome, after discussion
Saturday, July 7: Seven Deadly Sins party @ PinkHome, 9PM
Thursday, July 12: LGBT Independent Film Screening @ PinkHome, 8:30PM

To get you in the mood for Pride, enjoy some music from gay or gay-friendly artists. After that, why not join Shanghai's LGBT group at their Yahoo! group page? After joining the group, you can order a t-shirt or tank top with the Shanghai LGBT logo, as well as vote in the election for King (female) and Queen (male) of Shanghai LGBT. The winners will be crowned at the Seven Deadly Sins party.

Other Information
The Shanghai LGBT group meets the last Thursday of every month at Frangipani and always welcomes new members.
Questions about this week's Pride activities can be answered by emailing shanghailgbt@yahoogroups.com

PinkHome, 18 Gaolan Road, near Sinan Road; 皋兰路18号, 近思南路
Frangipani, 399 Dagu Road, near Shi Men Yi Road; 大沽路399号, 近石门一路

Video is a special English version of the online videocast 《同志亦凡人》 (Queer as Folk). This episode focuses on gay Shanghai and mentions our blog!