An LGBTI filmmaker and activist is suing Chinese censors for banning his documentary.

Popo Fan told the Global Times that a court in Beijing accepted his case on Monday (14 September).

Mama Rainbow, a short documentary about six Chinese mothers and their gay sons, was viewed a total 100,000 times on China’s three leading video sharing sites before it just disappeared from the internet in December.

According to a 56.com employee, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) ordered the site remove the film because it said its gay content violated regulations.

Fan sent a letter to SAPPRFT in February requesting the document sent to 56.com. But the media regulator denied it had requested that the video be removed.

Fan’s lawyer, Wang Zhenyu, said they had evidence proving SAPPRFT was lying.

‘We are asking the court to require the SAPPRFT to disclose the information about the removal,’ he told the Global Times.

SAPPRFT have no regulations banning gay content in films, but LGBTI films are routinely blocked for ‘pornographic’ or ‘obscene’ content.

‘This is actually a puzzle because I have some other more sensitive videos and they’re OK. Just Mama Rainbow got in trouble,’ Fan told Gay Star News in February.

‘Mama Rainbow talks about coming out to families. Among all the LGBT issues, it’s a very harmonious topic. It’s very weird that they took this one off.’

The suit comes just weeks after censors approved a gay film to be shown Chinese theaters for the first time.

Watch the documentary below: