China to have its first gay beauty pageant

BEIJING - China will be witnessing its first gay beauty pageant Friday, an organiser said, adding “the gay community is here and it’s healthy, sexy, trendy”.

Gayographic, Beijing’s only gay PR and event management company, will be organising the landmark pageant that will be held Friday evening.

“We hope to send out a message to the Chinese public that the gay community is here and it’s healthy, sexy, trendy,” the China Daily quoted Ben Zhang, co-founder and managing director of Gayographic, as saying Monday.

Twentysix-year-old Emilio Liu said: “When Ben first asked me about (the pageant) I accepted as a joke.

“I accepted because I never thought something like this would happen in China.”

Zhang said the eight finalists were from all over China.

“Six are based in Beijing, but none are from Beijing.

“We’ve got contestants from Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Chongqing, Tianjin, Chengdu, Liaoning, and Harbin.”

The winner will compete in the final competition in Oslo, Norway in February.

There will be a panel of five judges for the competition, and Zhang said they are men, women, gay, straight and “represent all walks of life and a little bit of local flavour”.

Contestant Steven Zhang, 30, said his father does not know that his son his gay. “I think this will out me,” he admitted, “whether I like it or not.”