China’s LGBT community makes another push for mainstream acceptance by sending 15 gays and lesbians to an international sporting and cultural event.

Fan Popo, 24, receives a short message from his older brother that reads: “Have you won any medals?” Fan is on a flight back to Beijing from Copenhagen, Denmark, after competing in the nine-day second World Outgames 2009 in Denmark’s capital, which ended earlier this month.

It brought together 15 gays and lesbians from the Chinese mainland and thousands more LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people from around 90 countries worldwide.

This was the first time the mainland’s gay and lesbian athletes attended an international sporting and cultural event hosted by and for the LGBT community.

The Outgames are different from the Gay Games or Gay “Olympics” started in 1982. The first Outgames was held in Montreal, Canada in 2006, which attracted more than 12,000 participants from 110 countries, but ended up with a $5.3 million deficit.

The Montreal Outgames saw just two participants from the Chinese mainland — and that too in the cultural activities — but no athlete. This year, four amateur athletes were included in the Chinese team to compete in running, swimming, volleyball, beach volleyball and table tennis.

They picked up two bronze medals in men’s table tennis doubles. Li Zandong, of Chinese origin who has been living in Germany for a decade, took the first place in beach volleyball men’s doubles, earning his first gold medal. Other members of the team took part in the various cultural activities, including “Outcities”, street exhibitions of works by artists from six cities, a film festival and a “Queer Tango Dance Festival”.

Two-time participant of the World Outgames and coordinator of a Beijing-based lesbian support group, Xu Bin, remembers the embarrassment of Montreal.

“It showed that my country was not that open to gay people then.”

One year before the 2009 Outgames, Xu received an invitation from Copenhagen. Soon after, gay and lesbian groups began raising money by throwing parties and other fund-raising activities.

“This time, I was not alone,”says Xu. “More than a dozen of us were seen by the world walking in the opening procession in front of the city hall of Copenhagen. It showed that China is becoming more open and we have more confidence in our sexual identity.”

“Since 2005, gay groups on the Chinese mainland have become more active with the public gaining a better understanding of homosexuals,” Xu adds.

This view is shared by Luke Zhao, also a participant at the Copenhagen Outgames and coordinator of the Chinese team. “This will encourage the silent majority who are busy hiding their homosexuality, under pressure from their family members,” he says.

According to a 2008 report of mainstream recognition of homosexuality, China inhabits a gray area, a middle space place in the spectrum that goes all the way from harsh penalties to legitimate same-sex unions. But, confessing the truth of one’s sexual orientation to one’s parents remains the toughest part for most gays.

For Fan Popo, the most striking aspect of the Outgames is the chance it offers to meet people from different backgrounds. He recalls meeting a Danish elderly lady who has supported her gay son as a volunteer.

Seeing them together greatly moved Fan. “I know how hard it is for Chinese parents to be openly supportive about a gay son,” says Fan.

Eva Lee, who works for a gay website and went to Copenhagen as a reporter, says the appearance of the Chinese contingent at the Games helped the world understand China better. “It told others that there are funny guys in China, too.”

Both Lee and Xu recall their encounter with a pair of lesbian lovers affectionately. The two, over 70 years old, were sitting in front of a church waiting to be blessed. Lee and Xu were told they were the first pair to be granted legal partnership in Denmark in 1989, the year that country — the world’s first — legitimized same-sex unions. “It was the 20th anniversary of their relationship,” Xu says, “They were probably the first registered lesbian partners in the world.”

The active involvement of Denmark’s citizens, regardless of their sexual orientation, in hosting the 2009 Outgames is another aspect that left a deep impression on the Chinese participants who see Denmark as a role model and hope to win more medals in the third World Outgames to be held in Belgium, 2013.

Sociologist and LGBT rights activist Li Yinhe, who also attended the first World Outgames with Xu Bin, says: “If winning in the Olympics is considered an honor, why is winning at the Outgames not?”

While Zheng Yuantao, a gay freelance translator who did not make it to Copenhagen, supports the Outgames, Xiao Dong does not.

Xiao, who runs the “Hi, Volunteers” website, says: “Their participation will make little difference to the (LGBT) community.”

The money spent, he says, could have been better used “to buy condoms to reduce the risk of infections, and to organize local sport events that everyone can enjoy”.

Video: Lou Yi & Cong Fangjun

Subtitle: Zhang Hang

Story: Mei Jia