Pink Everest: Nepal appeals for gay tourists

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By RAVI NESSMAN (AP) – 2 days ago

KATMANDU, Nepal — Nepal wants to paint Mount Everest pink.

It wants gay honeymooners trekking through the Himalayas.

It wants to host the world’s highest same-sex wedding at Everest base camp.

But mainly, the conservative Hindu nation wants a chunk of the multibillion dollar gay tourist market to help pull it out of poverty.

That quest — brushing aside historical biases in pursuit of economic opportunity — is symbolic of one of the gay rights movement’s most stunning successes.

Just five years ago, police were beating gays and transsexuals in the streets.

BBC: The march of gay politics

30 June 2009
BBC
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The march of gay politics

By Jon Kelly
Political reporter, BBC News

New York’s Stonewall riot in 1969 is credited with launching the gay rights movement – and 40 years on, its impact is still being felt by politicians in the UK.

It seems a world away from modern-day Westminster, where openly gay MPs and peers sit around the cabinet and shadow cabinet tables while politicians on all sides of the House profess their tolerance.

On 28 June 1969, following a campaign of police harassment, patrons of Greenwich Village’s Stonewall Inn – mostly gay men, lesbians and transvestites – fought back following a raid.

The event prompted the first gay pride marches, inspired a new wave of the equality movement and eventually gave its name to the campaign group Stonewall.

Zaobao: Shanghai Pride Week

17 June 2009
Lianhe Zaobao
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English translation by Signeller Kay Loh. Original Chinese text follows below.

(Breakfast news – The New Shanghainese) “The Shanghai Pride Week”

2000-06-17.   He Xi Wei

Last Monday, at a chit chat session that was supposed to be attended by youngsters, the appearance of an “uncle” with grey hair stood out like a sore thumb.

It was a discussion related to the developmental process on homosexuality in China, and the majority of attendees are either “comrades” in the circle or people driven by curiosity to take a peep at the psychology of gays. However, the reasons given by “uncle” was different: the organizers knew later that because his daughter was also gay, “uncle” wished to take part in the discussions to better understand his daughter.

ST: ‘Coming out’ in China

20 June 2009
Straits Times

MEMO FROM BEIJING
‘Coming out’ in China

While homosexuality is still largely a social taboo, Chinese society is slowly opening up

By Sim Chi Yin, China Correspondent

TWO empty white picture frames hung on the art gallery’s wall.

Hours earlier, the authorities had marched in, inspected each art piece and asked for the sexually explicit ones to be removed.

But apart from those casualties, Beijing’s first gay art exhibition opened without trouble last Sunday.

A crowd of 200 gay, straight, Chinese and expatriate guests gathered over soft drinks and beer at the Songzhuang Art District on the city’s outskirts for what organisers quietly hailed as a breakthrough for gays in China, where homosexuality was delisted as a ‘mental illness’ only in 2001.

NYT: Gay festival in China pushes official boundaries

14 June 2009
New York Times
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Shanghai Journal
Gay Festival in China Pushes Official Boundaries

By Andrew jacobs

SHANGHAI — It was shortly after the “hot body” contest and just before a painted procession of Chinese opera singers took the stage that the police threatened to shut down China’s first gay pride festival. The authorities had already forced the cancellation of a play, a film screening and a social mixer, so when an irritated plainclothes officer arrived at the Saturday afternoon gala and flashed his badge, organizers feared the worst.

After some fraught negotiations, Hannah Miller, an American teacher who helped put together the weeklong festival, agreed to limit the crowds, keep the noise down and, most important, “not let anything happen that might embarrass the government,” she explained after returning from the impromptu sidewalk meeting. “That was a close call,” she said.

Crisis averted, the party continued.

BBC: China bans parts of gay festival

10 June 2009
BBC News
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China bans parts of gay festival

By Chris Hogg
BBC News, Beijing

The organisers of China’s first Gay Pride Festival have been told to cancel two of their sessions.

The news came on the very day a state-run newspaper described the Shanghai festival as of “profound significance”.

Officials have warned the owners of two venues planning to hold a play and a film screening they would face “severe consequences” if they went ahead.

China Daily: Pride of tolerance

10 June 2009
China Daily
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Pride of tolerance
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-10 07:58

The ongoing Shanghai Pride 2009, the largest festival of the gay and lesbian community on the Chinese mainland, is a good showcase of the country’s social progress alongside the three decades of economic boom.

For long, most Chinese viewed the phenomenon of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals as weird imports from the decadent West. Even though there is mention of homosexual practices in ancient Chinese dynasties and literature, it was not until 1997 that gay sex was decriminalized in China. And, it was only in 2001 that homosexual behavior was taken off the official list of mental disorders.

BBC: State media praises Shanghai gays

10 June 2009
BBC
Source

State media praises Shanghai gays

Chris Hogg
BBC News, Beijing

China’s first gay pride festival has been praised in the state media in a significant shift from the previous attitude to such events.

The festival was described in the China Daily newspaper as an event of “profound significance” and a “showcase of the country’s social progress”.

Film screenings, discussions and parties are being held as part of the week long festival in Shanghai.

China Daily: Gay couples say ‘I do’ in symbolic marriages

16 April 2009
China Daily
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Gay couples say ‘I do’ in symbolic marriages
By Mei Jia (China Daily)

Wang Zhiyong was trying to tear up the two copies of a “marriage certificate” embossed with a photo of him and his gay “spouse”.

His partner lunged to snatch them back.

However, their token of love finally lay torn and tattered on the ground.

It was only two months earlier that 42-year-old Wang, a senior mechanic based in Beijing, and his much-younger lover got the “marriage certificate” issued by Beijing LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual) Center as a tangible expression of their commitment.

Wang threw a small wedding feast to which relatives and close friends were invited.

“I know the wedding was not legally valid, but I liked the freshness of the idea,” he said.

BBCNews: Singapore gays in first public rally

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Sharanjit Leyl

BBC News, Singapore

Participants of the pinkdot rally in Singapore. Photo: 16 May 2009

Many participants described the rally as “a landmark event”

Halfway across the world, as police moved in to break up a gay rights protest in Russia, another country known for being equally as restrictive on liberal ideals was holding its first gay rally undisturbed.

Some 2,500 pink-attired supporters of gay rights gathered in a park in Singapore on Saturday, to form a pink dot, which was photographed from a nearby building.