International filmmakers had already travelled to China for the Beijing Queer Film Festival. Volunteers had helped sustain an event with a history stretching back to 2001. Audiences were preparing for a gathering centred on queer stories.

Then, on the evening before it was due to begin, it announced its cancellation.

The independent festival was scheduled to open on October 30. According to reporting by The Guardian’s senior China correspondent Amy Hawkins, the decision followed sustained harassment from authorities, including repeated police phone calls in recent weeks.

A cancellation announced the night before

In an Instagram statement posted late on October 29, organizers confirmed that the event, named in their announcement as Love Queer Film Week, had been cancelled.

They apologized to people who had planned to participate or had been looking forward to the programme.

The Guardian’s account of police pressure is separate from that public cancellation statement. The newspaper reported that Beijing’s public security bureau could not be reached for comment.

There is no announced replacement date in the report.

A space built around queer lives

Founded by a group of Peking University students in 2001, the festival became one of China’s oldest independent film events.

The Guardian describes it as the only film festival in mainland China offering a public forum for films and discussions exploring LGBTQ+ issues.

That role gives the cancellation significance beyond a lost programme of screenings. A festival also offers opportunities to meet other viewers, exchange experiences and encounter stories that may have little space elsewhere.

Hongwei Bao, a professor of Chinese studies at the University of St Andrews who focuses on LGBTQ+ issues, described the festival to the newspaper as “a beacon for LGBT resilience” in China.

He warned that its shutdown would have a chilling effect on the Chinese queer community.

Pressure on places to gather

Maya Wang, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, placed the cancellation in the context of tightening social and ideological control under Xi Jinping.

Speaking to The Guardian, she described overlapping pressures on civil society, LGBTQ+ communities and independent filmmakers — all of which meet at a queer film festival.

The newspaper also reported that LGBTQ+-themed screenings planned at Beijing’s Institut Français during Pride month in June had been cancelled because of police harassment.

These are separate events, but together they illustrate the shrinking opportunities for public screenings and discussion described in the report.

The willingness to participate remained

Despite those pressures, interest in the festival had continued.

Several international filmmakers whose work had been selected had travelled to China to take part. Last year, the festival received 200 volunteer applications, four times the number received in 2024.

Those details speak to the people behind the programme: filmmakers willing to travel and community members willing to give their time.

The cancellation stops this year’s gathering. It also leaves a visible reminder of the audience, enthusiasm and commitment that were waiting for it.

📷 AI / collage

For more LGBTQ+ stories, visit B-Gay on YouTube.

A rainbow tutu is not standard running equipment. For Mikah Meyer, it was one way to make sure people noticed who was coming down the road.

The gay adventurer ran 172 miles across Mississippi in February 2021, sometimes wearing the tutu, sometimes an Elvis jumpsuit and sometimes a unicorn onesie.

Now that journey is reaching a new audience through Miss Adventure, a documentary short scheduled for its official world premiere at England’s Kendal Mountain Festival, with screenings on November 20 and 21.

In a new Outsports interview published October 28, Meyer discussed the film and his ambition to bring its message of LGBTQ+ belonging to more viewers.

A deliberately visible journey

The idea began with a question to his social media followers: which state did they consider America’s most homophobic?

They chose Mississippi. That was an informal poll of his followers, rather than an objective ranking of the state or everyone who lives there.

Meyer turned the response into a challenge. He would run across Mississippi while making his identity visible, bringing a gay presence into an outdoor adventure story.

His support crew documented the trip. The resulting film combines the physical journey with a conversation about the experiences LGBTQ+ people carry into places where acceptance can feel uncertain.

His college mentor, Larry Edwards, also appears. Their connection gives the documentary an intergenerational dimension, with both men hoping younger LGBTQ+ people will face an easier path.

Making the representation he missed

Meyer was already experienced at ambitious travel. In 2019, he completed a continuous journey to all 419 U.S. National Park Service sites that existed at the time.

His official trip map records the three-year adventure, which ended at the Lincoln Memorial on April 29, 2019.

As Banff Pride’s screening announcement explains, Meyer grew up watching travel television without seeing someone like himself. His work now helps create that representation for others.

He also founded Outside Safe Space, a symbol people can wear to show LGBTQ+ people they are welcome in outdoor settings.

A community helped make the film

Miss Adventure is co-directed by Meyer and adventure filmmaker James “Q” Martin.

On the film’s official website, Meyer credits donations from viewers with making the project possible, highlighting support from churchgoers who heard him preach or sing and saw his earlier film, Canyon Chorus.

It is a fitting detail for a project about finding connection: audiences helped fund the next story after responding to the one he had already shared.

Banff Pride has announced an early look at the film on November 2, while identifying Kendal later that month as the official world premiere. The Mississippi run itself happened in 2021; the new development is the documentary’s upcoming screenings.

Meyer also hopes to find support for a feature-length version. For now, the short carries a clear invitation to see gay people as part of outdoor adventure — with room for endurance, vulnerability and a little roadside flamboyance.

📷 @mikahmey

For more LGBTQ+ stories, visit B-Gay on YouTube.