For gay men traveling abroad, mobile apps like SCRUFF, Grindr and Manjam are the new, arguably sexual, calling card for like-minded people looking for hook-ups, social interactions and new acquaintances in foreign lands. But for others, especially in countries that are hostile to the gay experience, these sites are a mixed blessing, reports David Crary…
Amnesty International (AI) said Wednesday that a draft anti-homosexuality bill in the Republic of Chad, a landlocked country in Central Africa, will represent a major step backwards for human rights in the country if passed into law. The proposed amendment to the penal code would criminalize same-sex conduct in Chad, carrying the threat of jail…
ISRAEL: Hundreds rather than thousands of LGBT people and their friends took part in Jerusalem’s 13th annual Gay Pride parade, Sept. 18 after the event was postponed not once but twice, reports GayAsiaNews.com The event had to be postponed once due to the Israel Defense Forces’ 50-day offensive in the Gaza Strip when Hamas fired…
TAIWAN — Taiwan is getting ready to host its first International Queer Film Festival which organizers say is an endeavor to showcase LGBT themes to the Taiwanese people as well as highlight awareness about issues the community faces, reports GayAsiaNews.com. “We hope that the Queer Festival will not only play an anchor role in showing to…
The Gay European Tourism Association (GETA) has teamed up with the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office to offer travel advice to LGBT travelers in Europe. In a new travel advice section on its Web site, GETA explains the difference in legal and social attitudes to homosexuality across Western, Central and Eastern Europe. “Most countries in…
BANGKOK — The Thai LGBT community encounters great social stigma and limited job opportunities despite the country’s tourism authority actively promoting Thailand as a gay-friendly tourist destination, says a recent international report. According to GayAsiaNews.com, the ‘Being LGBT in Asia’ Thailand Country Report released Sept. 16, “highlights a contradiction between Thailand’s public face of tolerance…
BANGLADESH — Bangladesh says it will veto the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) proposal to provide rights for gay and lesbian people, reports GayAsiaNews.com. “It goes against our values. Like many other countries including those Muslim and Christian, we opposed it,” Bangladesh Permanent Representative to the UN Abdul Momen told the Dhaka Tribune….
Members of the Bolashak national movement and social activists in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, have combined their efforts to help staunch the spread of gay propaganda as well as ban same-sex couples from adoption, work in the public sector or service in the Kazakh army. Dauren Babamuratov, the public face of the anti-gay backlash, has…
With a checkered past and an unsympathetic readership, Well Well Well hopes to blaze a new trail in lesbian glossies as it debuted last Friday in France. The magazine, which will initially be published biannually and focuses on the modern French lesbian woman, hopes to succeed where others have failed. “Earlier this year, Jeanne —…
INDIA — The Indian federal government has asked the Supreme Court to modify its landmark ruling that accepted transgender people as a socially and economically backward caste, reports GayAsiaNews.com. The government also told the Supreme Court that gays, lesbians and bisexuals cannot all be clubbed as transgenders and that such a supposition had created confusion….
