At a star-studded gala dinner in the banquet hall of a swanky Taipei hotel on Oct. 28, five young Taiwanese were on stage, pulling faces and striking poses to the amusement of the hundreds in attendance at the inaugural Queermosa Awards.

The group included Zhong Ming-xuan (鍾明軒), Lin Jin (林進) and the transgender woman A-La (小A辣). Combined, their Facebook pages are followed by about 3 million people.

A-La, 27, rose to stardom in 2014 with a YouTube video, which has since been viewed more than 2.6 million times. Lin is best known for a 2015 video of him dancing with his elderly grandmother in the same room, which has garnered more than 4 million views. Zhong, 17, similarly became famous at the age of 12 after a video of him singing went viral.

While their videos and posts are often satirical – their sense of humor could perhaps not quite be described as universal – the group have been credited with championing LGBT issues among Taiwan’s young generation. Their impact has been so notable that the awards, which acknowledges the efforts of many long-time gay rights activists, had a special “Internet Phenomenon” category for someone who uses the Internet to support the LGBT community. There were five nominees – the award was taken out by Lin, also known as "Fashion Baby."

The inaugural ceremony drew some of Taiwan’s most well-known entertainers, politicians and international media.

Queermosa Awards founder, Jay Lin (林志杰), believes the “taboo” around LGBT issues in Taiwan has slowly been “chipped away” in recent years. In-depth articles covering LGBT issues, though still mostly published by alternative media, reach a larger audience than before because of social media , he says. Read more via News Lens