Fridae

Nigel Collett reviews Imagining Gay Paradise: Bali, Bangkok and Cyber-Singapore, a book by journalist and academic Gary L. Atkins that depicts gay paradises in Southeast Asia and the men who created them: Walter Spies, a gay German painter in Bali; Khun Toc who conceptualised the well known sauna Babylon in Bangkok; and Dr Stuart Koe who founded Fridae.

Hong Kong’s Tongzhi Community Joint Meeting (TCJM for short) has decided to adopt a working name called Pink Alliance for its activities whilst keeping the TCJM name for its legally established and registered non-profit NGO. Fridae's Hong Kong Correspondent Nigel Collett has more on the group's history and new developments.

Sponsored by Barclays and conducted by Hong Kong University’s Public Opinion Programme, this is the first statistically reliable survey published on Hong Kong’s attitudes to sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace.

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.

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).

In November this year, the Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists at last made an announcement on sexual orientation and the efficacy of faith-based 'therapies' – making it the first psychiatric or psychological professional body in Asia known to have done so. Fridae's Hong Kong correspondent, Nigel Collett, examines the issue.

The plaintiff, publicly known as Ms W and who has since 2008 been fighting for her the right to marry, will now take her case to the Court of Final Appeal after the Court of Appeal last Friday refused her the right to legally marry a man.

Hans Tao-Ming Huang's new book seeks to chronicle five decades of queer related cultural history and politics of sexuality in Taiwan by examining literary works including Pai Hsien-yung's Crystal Boys, one of Taiwan's first recognised gay novels; Taiwanese newspaper observations of same-sex issues; the influence the feminist movement has in Taiwan; among others.

In this new collection, Peter A. Jackson brings together experts including veteran Singapore gay activist Alex Au, and prominent academics Professor Douglas Sanders, Megan Sinnot and Dr Sam Winter, to piece together a picture of how Thailand’s politics, economics, art, society and views of sex affect the LGBT people who actually live there as opposed to just pass through.

It’s a bumper crop of events including the Mr Gay Hong Kong pageant, Flotilla, HK Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Gay Day @ Disney for Hong Kong’s first LGBT festival – an unprecedented collaboration between local LGBT groups. The pride parade will be held Nov 12 after a hiatus last year but organisers say they do not wish to be included in the line-up for now.