Fridae

The festival marked the close of the 5-day, 28-film run last month at a small crowded cafe near Andingmen, Beijing with more cheer as usual as organisers report that this year marks the first time in its 13-year history that none of their events were disrupted nor did they have to engage in a cat and mouse game with the police as they did in previous years.

Todd Sears, founder of the first Wall Street LGBT leadership organisation Out on the Street, was in Hong Kong last month. Fridae's Hong Kong Correspondent, Nigel Collett, finds out more about the first Asian Summit scheduled for 24 October this year.

With an estimated record turn out of 21,000, Singapore's Pink Dot rally to support the acceptance of LGBTs has become the second largest gay-affirmative event in Asia in five years, behind the annual Taiwan Pride Parade in Taipei. Watch the official video here.

Dr Vincent Wijeysingha, an opposition politician in Singapore, has come out as gay in a Facebook post today; making him the first openly gay politician in the country.

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday handed two major victories to advocates of same-sex marriage in the US, ruling that same-sex couples should get the same federal benefits as heterosexual couples and clearing the way for the resumption of same-sex marriages in California.

The European Union's 27 foreign affairs ministers on June 24 adopted a "ground-breaking" global policy which instructs EU diplomats around the world to defend the human rights of LGBTI people.

Japan's southernmost prefecture will be having their own Pink Dot event on July 14, in support of LGBTs. Co-organiser Hideki Sunagawa tells Fridae guest writer in Okinawa, Muneerah Bee, how he came to be inspired to organise the event in his home city.

Speaking at Vietnam's first National LGBT Community Dialogue, UNDP Country Director Louise Chamberlain acknowledged the efforts of the Vietnamese government to address the struggles of LGBT citizens and their parents, family and friends.

Russia's lower house on Tuesday voted 436-0 to ban gay "propaganda", a measure will impose heavy fines for providing information about homosexuality to people under 18.

Fridae and Stark Mobile Technologies partnership further signifies the world's first Global Affinity Alliance that seamlessly integrates global partner websites.