Seven gay and lesbian couples from China have tied the knot in the US after winning a contest sponsored by a pair of Chinese internet companies.

The seven couples were selected from among more than 2,000 based on videos they submitted detailing their love stories, after internet users voted for their top 10 favourites on Taobao, Alibaba's popular e-commerce site.

The mayor of West Hollywood, a southern California city popular with gay travellers and known for its large gay community, officiated the wedding ceremonies on Tuesday at a city library.

"We're so honoured and happy to have them in West Hollywood," Mayor Lindsey Horvath said. "We've long been a community committed to equal rights for all people, and advancing and protecting the rights especially of our LGBT community."

While these couples' marriages are recognised in California, which legalised gay marriage in 2013, their unions will not be legal in China. China decriminalised homosexuality more than 10 years ago, but still does not allow gay marriage.

"We've been together for almost eight years, so we want to give each other a promise or a commitment for life," said Hu Zhidong, who met his partner, Liu Xin, at a party, where they found out they shared the same birthday.

The prize in the online competition was an all-expenses-paid wedding and honeymoon.
'Coming-out opportunity'

Xu Na and Xue Meng Yao, the only lesbian couple participating in the ceremony, told Reuters news agency that the opportunity to use the event to come out was also important.

"We want to find a proper time to tell our parents," Xu said. "This could be a good chance for them to see a lot of positive exposure."

The contest was partly sponsored by Blued, a Chinese-language gay dating app with at least 15 million users.

Geng Le, Blued's founder and chief executive, said that while many online media outlets in China were interested in covering this event, Chinese television stations might hesitate, because homosexuality was still a sensitive topic there.

Homosexuality is finding increasing acceptance in China but many openly gay men face pressure to undergo sexuality "treatment" or marry a partner of the opposite sex.

Homosexuality was declassified as a mental disorder in the country in 2001.

相关报道：

对于中国的7对恋人和7000万的LGBT(女同性恋、男同性恋、双性恋、跨性别者)群体来说，6月9日是一个特别并值得铭记的日子——这一天，在洛杉矶市市长的主持下，来自中国的7对同性恋人于洛杉矶好莱坞市公共图书馆举行婚礼。

这是一次策划已久的集体婚礼，从2015年1月23日正式启动以来，主办方之一的男性同性社交软件Blued收到2000多封参与报名的邮件。在随后的复选中，20对恋人通过视频讲述了他们的爱情故事。

赢得网友投票最多的10对恋人，在淘宝网的赞助下获得了免费去美国结婚度蜜月的资格。但遗憾的是，由于签证问题，最终只有7对情侣如愿赴洛杉矶登记结婚。

淘宝作为本次活动的主办方之一，已经不是第一次向同性恋人群示好了。在2014年的“双十一”活动中，淘宝的宣传视频就有同志伴侣现身。虽然淘宝方面表示不愿意过多透露关于马云赞助此次集体婚礼的信息，但他们的意图也再明显不过：马云显然看好了这个数亿级别的同志消费市场。

根据Blued创始人耿乐的介绍，作为中国用户数量最大的同性社交软件，Blued目前有1500万用户，其中包括300万海外用户。保守估计下的中国7000万LGBT群体具备着强大的消费能力。中国同性恋的消费市场每年可达数百亿。《首届中国LGBT群体生活消费指数调查报告》中提到，同性恋群体更倾向于拥有护照、出门远行以及选择精品酒店与就餐场所。

同志群体有着极高的购买力，电商是基于同志经济的最好商业模式。耿乐表示，已有多家国内电商与Blued接触合作，因为同志用户是他们非常喜欢的用户群体之一，不但因为他们有着超强的购买力，还因为他们有着自己独特的品味和明确的消费指向。耿乐透露，淡蓝网的广告位几乎是一出来就被一些某知电商网站买走。

而对觊觎同性消费市场已久的淘宝来说，能与Blued联合为中国同性恋人举办一次集体婚礼，显然是很值得来的营销事件。