'The poem was based on short mobile phone messages between a same-sex couple. The content is really nothing when compared with other articles also classified as class II,' said Wei Siu-lik, a participant of Nutong Xueshe, which is jointly organising the exhibition with the Hong Kong Ten Percent Club.

'It seems that the work has been banned simply because it was written by a homosexual. Despite the unfair judgment, we have decided to withdraw the poem from the exhibition,' she said.

Organisers were told that the entire exhibition would be classified as a class II article if the poem was not withdrawn.

Zillywow, author of the poem, said: 'It expresses how the same-sex couple miss each other and it shows that the love relationship between the same-sex couple is similar to that of heterosexual couples.'

Project director Yau Ching said this would be the first time the Cultural Centre has hosted an exhibition that encouraged sexual minorities to express their feelings about how they viewed themselves, families, their lives and careers.

'Many of them want to speak out, but they dare not to show their faces. But now with the classification problem, attention has been diverted to the poem,' she said.

She also criticised the Home Affairs Bureau, which is sponsoring the event, for being unfair to the organisers of the exhibition.

'The bureau claims that funding aims to promote equality among people with different sexual orientations. Yet it fails to offer us support when we encounter problems such as the one arising from this poem,' said Professor Yau, who is a cultural studies academic at Lingnan University.

'The bureau is repeatedly reminding us that it might withdraw funding if we do not withdraw the poem,' she said.