Kicking it with the Beijing Gay, Lesbian Allies crew

“When I first came to Beijing years ago, you’d show up to a queer event and would have to convince the bouncer that you knew someone inside, otherwise they’d turn you away ‘cause they were suspicious that you don’t look gay enough,” recalls Ilsa, as Freddy Mercury winds up the crowd in the Queen concert projected overhead. It’s Sunday night and we are at L’Étage, a cozy Chaoyang lounge, for the weekly BGLAD (Beijing Gay, Lesbian Allies Discussion) salon. Before Freddy came on, there was a screening of a longish, but engagingly coy, “Breakfast on Pluto.” A solid acoustic set by Camilla Chialà, one of the evening’s co-curators, is yet to come.

Chialà and her business partner, Carissa Welton, run the Beijing office of BOA Events, which organizes BGLAD. Having started out as a listserve, BGLAD soon became a weekly community gathering organized mostly around intimate pot-lucks. But this format limited the group’s capacity and made some new members reluctant to join. So when Camilla and Carissa (one of whom is gay, the other straight) took over, they set out to do a little re-vamping. A few weeks of brainstorming and a serendipitous eye-to-eye with L’Étage owner Franck Bianchi, who volunteered to give BGLAD a home, created this weekly salon.

The Sunday night series is designed to be both a community event and a stimulating cultural happening in its own right. Chialà and Welton are working off of a vision that brings together a diverse, cosmopolitan group of creative people to watch films, listen to music and participate in discussions of culture, literature and current events. They are also actively looking for more input to help formulate the future of the group, including a new organizational committee to help curate these gatherings.

On this Sunday evening, about a dozen conversations ebb and flow in this mixed, expat-Chinese-gay-straight gathering. Ben, who is Chinese, makes his way around the room, moving easily between groups and languages. A tall dark man with a suspicious titanium case makes an appearance. A far cry from the intensity of the meat-markety “Destinations” in this town, this is an open, sophisticated, but relaxed venue to meet, consume and unwind for folks of every stripe and persuasion. Ilsa suggests that BGLAD’s new format is a sign of Beijing’s coming of age, and of the ‘new China.’ We can certainly hope.

–Leo Beletsky