I was pleased to find out when I arrived in Shanghai last night that China's first gay pride festival was underway.  It hadn't garnered much press until this week, but by the time I arrived, the english papers were announcing the festival's events on the front cover.

According to Shanghai Daily (what seems to be the Shanghai equivalent of US TODAY)) the week's events Include in this week's events were several film screenings of international gay films and a legit theatre production of THE LARAMIE PROJECT.  I later confirmed this on ShanghaiPride.com, a blog that appears to be the official site for the festival.

This morning however, the headline's read "GAY PRIDE EVENT IN PERIL".  Apparently the publicity that the festival has received provoked Chinese authorities to shutter two of the scheduled film screenings as well as the production of THE LARAMIE PROJECT.  The cancelled film screenings were S/HE and DESTINATION SHANGHAI about the city's sex trade.

So far the other events are "on" according to the event's organizer, Hannah Miller which primarily includes a day-long list of parties on Saturday.