Fridae

Ng Yi-Sheng, a regular Fridae contributor and openly gay creative writing teacher at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, looks at the state of queer acceptance in Singapore’s universities – and wonders if the opening of the new Yale-NUS college will improve things.

From a street forum in Hong Kong to a workshop on family acceptance of LGBT people and coming out as LGBT in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Various cities in Asia are commemorating International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) today.

An iconic gay play by Singaporean-American playwright Chay Yew has been translated into Mandarin. It's being performed this weekend from 18 to 20 May 2012 in Singapore.

Hong Kong commemorates the International Day Against Homophobia And Transphobia with appearances by recently out Cantopop star Anthony Wong, well-known Hong Kong activist Billy Leung and his mother; as well as Legislative Councillors Audrey Eu, founder of the Civic Party, and Cyd Ho and Lee Cheuk Yan, founders of the Labour Party.

Openly lesbian Muslim activist and author Irshad Manji spoke about her faith after she had one event at a university in Yogyakarta cancelled, and another in Jakarta stopped midway where she had to leave under heavy police escort as religious extremists violently protested the event. 

For My Colours, a coalition which organised the IDAHO rallies from 2005-2008, has clashed with the Pink Alliance – organisers of this year's rally on May 12 – over an invited politican known for her anti-mainland immigration and anti-democratic views in an all-out spat.

Focusing on a range of Japanese as well as English male-queer materials including magazines and websites, author Katsuhiko Suganuma examines the formation of masculine same-sex desire in postwar Japan, and in particular to one aspect of its relations with the West (Euro-America).

An innocent on-screen kiss between Singaporean actresses Vivian Lai and Kate Pang took place during last Sunday’s Singapore Star Awards 2. The result has been a media frenzy, with actions taken by the Media Development Authority and MediaCorp.

From 4 to 18 May, rainbowartsproject is holding "Handsome: IVSG", an art exhibition about men and masculinity. Featured artists include filmmaker Bruce LaBruce, photographer Marcus Mok and young illustrator Faisal Husni.

With bullies running the country, many LGBTs find themselves hiding further and further beyond the margins of the legal, beyond the reach of the laws that deem them unfit for society. Making a person think he deserves no justice is NO different from denying him justice. And that is how many LGBTs are denied one of the most fundamental rights of being human: the right to justice.