Last night I got a call from a young brash reporter from a newspaper I was once associated with. Those who know me don’t have to ask which one, but let’s get on with what I have to say. This chap asks me ,’What do you have to say about the latest news about article […]
Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has changed the composition of the five-judge constitution bench that will examine the legal validity of section 377 of the penal code, a Victorian-era law that effectively criminalizes non-heterosexual relationships, among other types of ‘carnal intercourse against nature’. The question before the court is, whether Article 377 of the […]
The outspoken Laxmi Narayan Tripathy was at her forthright best when she took the stage at the Bihar state-sponsored ‘Kinnar Mahotsav’ (Transgender Festival’), when she pointed out that there were hardly any people from the transgender Hijda/ TG community in the fancy auditorium. While commending the political will of the Bihar government and its department of Sports […]
Tens of thousands of people sashayed through the streets of Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, to participate in Asia’s biggest gay pride parade. Many of those who attended carried placards calling on the government to legalise same sex marriage. Dressed in colourful costumes and carrying rainbow flags, they paraded in front of Taiwan’s presidential palace. Taiwan is more […]
Israel: More than 2,000 persons demonstrated on Thursday evening outside the Be’er Sheva (Beersheba) City Hall building instead of marching in the city’s now-cancelled first ever Pride parade. Beersheba is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the “Capital of the Negev”, it is the centre of the […]
USA President Barack Obama said that his understanding of the Bible and his Christian beliefs led him to issue the directive at public schools calling on students to be allowed to use the bathroom of their choosing regardless of their biological sex. “My reading of scripture tells me that that [the] Golden Rule is pretty […]
Flying in the face of the dastardly IPC 377, South Asia’s biggest rainbow film festival is on! Short-sighted court ‘mis-judgements’ haven’t stopped Mumbai’s Liberty Cinema, Alliance Francaise de Bombay and Max Mueller Bhavan from supporting KASHISH, South Asia’s biggest and India’s only mainstream LGBTQ film festival. The festival will screen 182 films from 53 countries […]
For a decade, Orthodox priest Artyom Vechelkovsky taught at a religious seminary in the city of Samara. He says that his colleagues knew that he was gay, but accepted him and valued his work. But in the current climate of rising antigay sentiment in Russia, church officials suddenly decided to dismiss him, according to a […]
A new study in the Journal of Homosexuality has shown that, of all the world’s religions, Buddhism is the least homonegative. “Homonegativity” is defined as “an aversion to homosexuality as a social practice or way of life.” Although attitudes toward homosexuality have become more liberal, particularly in industrialized Western countries, there is still a great […]
Are the new smart phones and their unusual apps becoming health hazards? And are the ‘invisible’ gay communities in some homophobia endemic countries at risk? Health researchers in England said that the growing use of casual sex apps in European countries where discrimination against homosexuality is rife, threatens to fuel a rising number of HIV […]
This TV series is superbly vicious: that’s a review in a nutshell. Sometime in 2013, fresh from his latest turn as Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit movies,Sir Ian McKellen headed to the small screen. He’s moved in with Sir Derek Jacobi in the ITV sitcom ‘Vicious.’ The British acting icons play partners Freddie and Stuart, […]
British actor and veteran campaigner for Gay rights, Sir Ian McKellen has praised Tory Prime Minister David Cameron for pushing through on same-sex marriage. The actor and veteran Stonewall campaigner told Sunday Times Magazine that Mr Cameron had “dragged” his party forward on the issue. He said: “It’s astonishing for a Tory Prime Minister to […]
