Chinese Police has shut down Beijing's first gay and lesbian culture festival despite organisers moving the event at the last minute in an effort to escape police scrutiny.

Police ordered the event to close as organisers were setting up at the trendy Dashanzi art complex on Friday. A source in the Chinese capital told Fridae that the organisers were told to dismantle the event and leave while patrons were told to leave in small groups. Some of the participants later met in nearby restaurants and clubs.

The 3-day event - which included films, plays, exhibitions and seminars - was scheduled to run over the weekend and expected to attract some 400 people, according to media reports quoting organisers.

Zhu Rikun, an organiser said in a report: "They didn't give us a reason. Hundreds of people were due to turn up this weekend. I don't know how we are going to let everyone know it has been banned."

While police officials said that a permit to hold the event was not sought, organisers attributed the shut down to harassment and deep-rooted intolerance toward homosexuality.

"The attitude in China is still very conservative. They say it's illegal, but what's illegal about wanting to understand more about these issues?" a film student surnamed Cui told Reuters.

The ban has drawn an angry response from civil rights groups. The Aizhixing Institute of Health Education, an HIV/AIDS education group in the capital, has denounced the move in an open letter.
"Our activity does not go against or beyond any law of the People's Republic of China," said the letter.

"The fact is that homosexual culture and our unofficial cultural activities are still subjected to the forceful intervention of the government despite its claim to have a 'reform and open' policy."

Homosexuality was never illegal in China until the communist revolution in 1949 where gays were routinely arrested under a "hooliganism" clause in the law until a reform in 1997 removed this provision. At the time, homosexuality was thought to be a decadent Western influence or a remnant of Chinese feudal societies as traditional literature contains numerous references to male and female homosexuality. One common euphemism for homosexuals was "cut or broken sleeve," referring to an incident in which an emperor in ancient times cut off his sleeve on which his adored male concubine was sleeping so as not to wake him.

In 2001, the Chinese Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders.