INDIA — After India’s top court overturned a successful appeal decriminalizing sex between consenting adults of the same gender late last year, members of the LGBT community were demoralized. The decision, widely regarded as surprising given India’s role as the world’s largest democracy, left many in the community scratching their heads and asking: What’s next?…
Patricia Yurena, Miss Spain 2008 and 2013, has become the first openly lesbian national beauty queen. She revealed she is in a lesbian relationship by posting an Instagram photo of her and her lover, Vanesa Cortes, in bed. According to the Telegraph the 24-year old from Tenerife said, “I don’t regret what I did and…
INDIA — The Indian gay community is seeking to tell its story of marginalization, repression, stigma and discrimination to help inform the public and help lawmakers decide on repealing a law that criminalizes same-sex relations for being “unnatural.” Members of the community have formed “The Gaysi Family” platform in an attempt to gather stories of…
CHINA — When a 27-year-old woman, surnamed Wang, met the 32-year-old man, surnamed Zhou, she was, in her own words, swept off her feet. The two met one night and, much to her surprise, this charming, humorous stranger proposed. After four months of dating, they got married. But Wang quickly discovered certain quirks about him….
TURKEY — Despite what critics call his authoritarian streak, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan coasted to the presidency after winning 52 percent of the Turkish vote Aug. 10 making him the first popularly elected president in Turkey’s history. What has gone largely unnoticed in the Western press is that his Justice and Development Party (AKP)…
Just weeks after a Ugandan constitutional court rejected their ‘anti-gay’ law, the country has held its first Pride rally. The rally held Saturday in Entebbe, 35km from the capital Kampala, had police permission under and was described as an”invitation-only Uganda Pride” event. In a report in The Guardian Sandra Ntebi, the organizer of the event said, “This event…
MYANMAR — LGBT activists have used the popular Nat ‘spirit’ festival in Myanmar to provide HIV related information and promote blood tests and condoms to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS among gay men in the country, reports GayAsiaNews.com. The annual spirit festival is a socially accepted gathering point for members of the gay community even though same-sex relations are…
INDIA — The Indian federal Cabinet has decided to officially bar same-sex couples from adopting children, a move that some say can also be extended to single members of the LGBT community, reports GayAsiaNews.com. The cabinet took the decision, Aug. 6 while considering amendments to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000,…
Around 300 activists led a colorful parade through Hanoi on Sunday in the nation’s largest ever Gay Pride event, as communist Vietnam shows signs of increasing tolerance of sexual difference, reports Agence France Presse. The city streets were awash with rainbow flags, as a mainly young crowd cycled and danced through the capital urging an…
http://youtu.be/-jDpJm1TgFs A court in Uganda struck down the country’s anti-homosexuality law, Friday amid cheers from a packed courtroom in the capital Kampala. According to a report in the New York Times, a panel of five judges announced that the Anti-Homosexuality Act, which punishes some homosexual behavior with life in prison, was invalid because it had…
