A friend recently pointed me to a video of trans advocate Sylvia Rivera’s Y’all Better Quiet Down speech at New York City’s 1973 Liberation Day Rally. In the speech she stated, “I believe in the gay power. I believe in us getting our rights or else I would not be out their fighting for our…
COLOMBO — A federal government minister has categorically ruled out marriage between same-sex couples in the island nation of Sri Lanka, reports GayAsiaNews.com. The Sri Lankan government will not legalize gay marriages in Sri Lanka, said Economic Affairs Minister Basil Rajapaksa according to colombogazette.com. Speaking to newspaper editors in Colombo April 24, the minister said…
NEW DELHI — Today, the Supreme Court in India has agreed to make an exception and hear in open court a special petition on decriminalizing same-sex relations, reports GayAsiaNews.com. Gay rights activists and organizations had filed a “curative petition” requesting the Supreme Court it to correct its earlier verdict that upheld a colonial era “Section…
Speaking before an audience at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Richard E. Hoagland, the principal deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs stated in a Press Trust of India report that appeared in Siasat.com, “We monitor the situation in India, where the Supreme Court overturned a landmark ruling…
NEW DELHI — The Supreme Court’s ruling recognizing transgender people as the third sex might pave the way for decriminalizing same-sex relations in India, say gay-rights lawyers and activists in India, GayAsiaNews reports. In a landmark ruling on April 15, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justices KS Radhakrishnan and AK Sikri directed that transgender people…
To the dismay of LGBT organizations, the Turkish government has announced it will move forward with its plan to build separate prisons for self-declared gay, bisexual and transgender inmates. The goal, officials argue, is to protect those in the sexual minority. “Convicts who stated that they are gay will not mix with other convicts in…
BANGKOK — GayAsiaNews.com reports that progress in a marriage equality law in Thailand remains stuck more because of the ongoing political crisis than any serious social opposition to same-sex couples marrying. Thailand already was in the forefront of Asian countries with a bill in parliament for acknowledging marriage equality. However, the prolonged fluid situation of…
“First they came for LGBT people, and I did not speak out – because I was not an LGBT person. Then they came for the unions, and I did not speak out – because I was not a union member. Then they came for the undocumented and uninsured workers, and I did not speak out…
This Last week, I went out to see the movie based on the life of Latino icon and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez. It was a most moving movie and like the Oscar award-winning movie on Harvey Milk it brought back so many memories for me and had me crying, laughing and leaving the theater…
TAIWAN — Despite growing social acceptance of marriage between same-sex couples, equality in Taiwan remains largely a dream because of a lack of legal recognition reports gayasianews.com In the past, same-sex relations were taboo but recent studies show attitudes are changing, said a taipeitimes.com report citing last year’s poll conducted by Academia Sinica showing 52 percent…
