For those of you who are well-acquainted with LGBT happenings around the world, you would know that some Beijing activists staged a mock wedding photo shoot on Valentine's Day. You can read more about it here.

Irene from Sayoni had the honour of interviewing one of the brides, Dana, about her thoughts and experiences.

Irene: Hello Dana. Could you tell us why you (and your friends) conceptualized this idea?

Dana: Actually, some of us have been giving out flowers on the streets on Valentine’s Day since 2007. Flyers urging support for gay marriage were wrapped around the roses. We organized a series of events in 2008 on top of giving out flowers, such as collecting thousands of signatures supporting legislation of same-sex marriage in China and staging a public exhibition of the signatures. We made it a month-long equality campaign, starting from Valentine’s Day to the annual meeting of China’s People’s Congress. Thus, this event in 2009 was not impromptu. It was the result of continuing what we had done over the past two years.

Irene: Are the two of you a couple? You two look really good together.

Dana: No, she is my good friend. We have our own respective partners.

Irene: I remember that you guys gave out roses on Wangfujing during Valentine's Day in 2007. Is there any particular reason why you chose Qianmen Dajie for this year's event?

Dana: We wanted to hold it in a downtown area because we would like to enhance the visibility of gay people. Furthermore, Qianmen is a landmark place which is very uniquely Beijng.

Irene: How did it feel to take the centre stage for this event? What were the reactions of the passer-bys?

Dana: The wedding gown is such a magical item. The sense of happiness from wearing it is indescribable. I think my other friends would have more to say about taking wedding pictures on the streets, as I was fully focused on my pose and actions. I had to be very careful because I was the focus of attention that day. Of course we had all kinds of reactions. Regardless of what the news reports or the CCTV poll say, I received much more blessings than disdain on that day itself.

Irene: Could you share with us any particularly interesting experiences with the public on that day?

Dana: A middle-aged man rushed up to give us his blessings. There was a woman in her fifties who praised us for being so courageous. Many people were fighting to give us flowers or take pictures with us. I didn't really see too many reactions as I was absorbed in the photo taking.

Irene: Did the news reports (including photos) in foreign media create any pressure for you? For example with family, friends or colleagues at work... Do you have any concerns about how they would react if they were to see them?

Dana: I am not too worried about the reports in foreign media as my family lives mainly in China. But there is some local media coverage such as the CCTV online poll, NetEase, Tencent, which my family and friends might surf. I have some concerns because I have no plans to come out to my family for the time being.

Irene: Was it difficult to look for the grooms and brides for this event?

Dana: The four of us were decided upon by our personal contacts. There are very few gay people who would face the media in public. Furthermore, we need to take care of the visual details, like whether the couples would look good together in front of the cameras. In this aspect, the selection process was not easy.

Irene: Do you have any other thoughts which you would like to share with the Singaporean friends?

Dana: We hope that we can help more people realize that love between same-sex couples are just as beautiful as heterosexual couples, and it shouldn't be demonized with all sorts of bad names. If we have inspired some people who are working in gay activism, that would be an additional bonus.

On a more personal note, wearing the wedding gown for the first time has left a profound impression on me. I believe any woman would feel very happy in it.

This article is written by our guest writer, Ebelle.

This Chinese New Year was an interesting experience for me and my girlfriend. Having dated for close to a year, it was about time that we had that 'meet the extended family' session with her family.

On my side, she has already met my aunties, uncles and much of my extended family including my grandma when I brought her to Jakarta for a visit. My grandma even lived with us for a month when she came to Singapore. So it was no surprise when my uncle assumed she would be joining us for reunion lunch by sending me a SMS with the details of the lunch and ending it with "Irene is coming right?" The only reason why she hasn't met my parents is because they both live on the other side of the world. If we are to visit, I am sure my mother will welcome Irene and ask her when we are going to give her grandchildren. As for my father, even though I'm not out to him, I will not hesitate to bring Irene to meet him if he comes to town.

Her family though, is another story.

There are a few great mysteries in this world. Are there aliens out there? Does God exist? How were the pyramids built? But the greatest mystery of all, to me, is still why in the world I continue watching The L Word (and Grey’s Anatomy, but I’ve resolved to give no more airtime on this website to that particular show). As a heads-up to all our readers: a (slightly edited) first episode is available on the Official L Word podcast, free and legal for download.

If you have continued watching the show for 5 seasons, you are probably one of those people who just keep trudging along, hoping and praying that one day, miraculously, the sun is going to shine through the clouds and the show is going to get better. Well, I wouldn’t start holding my breath anytime soon – because if the premiere is anything to go by, the next seven episodes are going to be long and torturous.

So we open the show with cops on the scene, and who do we see as the detective, but Lucy Lawless, aka Xena the Warrior Princess. I have it on the best authority that I had a coronary right then, because, for crying out loud, it is Lucy Lawless, aka, hotness personified, aka butch-rape fantasy, aka my get-out-of-jail-card.

After I got a bypass and stitched my weakened heart back up, came the second (non)shocker of the episode: Dead Jenny. At this point, I swear I could hear angels singing “Hallelujah!”, and birds chirping, and the sky seemed so much bluer. Seriously. I’ve been wishing for Jenny to die for 5 seasons, and I thought I finally got it.

Occasionally a trickle of gay films makes it through the censors and the distribution channels. We had the love stories. Brokeback Mountain. Imagine Me and You. Then there were the shows that featured famous people, among them last year’s Indignation fundraiser, Wilde. Now there is Milk, a intelligent biopic that is deeply entwined with the gay movement.

To put the premise in a nutshell, Milk is the real-life story of the first openly gay man who took political office in the US, Harvey Milk. He ran for office three times, was finally voted city supervisor on his fourth try, and only a year later, had an untimely death at the hands of another supervisor. Gus Van Sant tells the story of this man in personal and political terms, tracking his career and recreating his love life, taking some dramatic liberties with the latter while remaining outwardly faithful to the former.

So that I can get this out of the way first — I think Milk succeeds through its sincerity, its contemporaneity, the political relevance of a buoyant civil rights movement, brilliant acting from Sean Penn and the supporting cast, and a lot of effort and talent put into the production otherwise.