Police in Beijing have ordered China's first gay pageant to close an hour before opening. The event was seen as a sign of growing openness towards China's gay community.

The police said the pageant, which was to take place in an upscale nightclub, could not go ahead because the organisers had failed to inform the authorities. The programme was to include a fashion show presented by a transvestite.

Homosexuality was illegal in China until 1997 and officially considered as a mental illness until 2001. Since then, there have been an increasing number of gay and lesbian events.

Last month, China's first government-backed gay bar opened in the tourist town of Dali in southwestern Yunnan province. And on Wednesday, the state-run China Daily ran a front page story about what it called China's first publicly married gay couple.

(Photo: Flickr / Akbar Simonse)