…… However, China has vibrant gay communities and activists in its major cities, and same sex couples are increasingly tolerated across society.

Lovematters, a popular gay-themed account on China’s Twitter-esque Weibo, shared and thanked Alibab’s e-commerce site Tmall for supporting the gay community. The account’s post received over 25,000 shares.

“The support of large companies for sexual minorities is one of the important factors for sexual minorities to gain visibility and be seen and recognized by the public. Thank you Tmall!” wrote Lovematters.

Alibaba did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for further comment on the ad.

One top-rated comment on Weibo described the position of the Alibaba’s ad as clever…….

——Alibaba praised by China’s gay community for ad recognizing same-sex couples By Josh HORWITZ