Fridae

Tokyo's inaugural Rainbow Week will kick off this Saturday with a pre-party before the parade which will pass through the Shibuya and Harajuku districts on Sunday, April 28.

Some 40 police officers of Inspector and Senior Inspector rank from the Caloocan Police Station of Caloocan City in Manila, and about 10 criminology students were the first to attend the first-ever LGBT and gender sensitivity training seminar held earlier this month by LGBT activists in the Philippines.

Hong Kong action superstar Jackie Chan has come out as an ally of LGBTs and is urging others to do the same.

Gary Lim and Kenneth Chee, plaintiffs in the recent S 377A constitutional challenge, will appeal the recent High Court judgment. Friends and supporters have launched a fundraising appeal to raise S$50,000 to help meet court costs.

New Zealand has become the first country in the Asia Pacific region and the 13th worldwide to legalise same-sex marriage after its parliament voted 77 to 44 on Wednesday night.

As lawmakers in Vietnam consider legalising same-sex marriage, the country's health ministry has reportedly said that it believes same-sex marriage to be a human right and should be allowed by the state.

Pink Alliance, a coalition of Hong Kong's LGBT groups, has launched the I am ME (我係我) video advocacy project to generate public awareness about anti-LGBT bullying of school students because of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

Lawmakers in Uruguay on Wednesday voted 71-21 to legalise same-sex marriage, making the South American country the 12th in the world and third in the Americas to do so.

In dismissing one of two legal challenges in which plaintiffs sought to have the country's anti-gay sex law declared unconstitutional, the judge concludes that while anal and oral sex in private between a consenting man and woman is considered "acceptable," the same conduct was "repugnant and offensive" when carried out between two men, "therefore no reason to strike down... s 377A... as arbitrary or discriminatory."

Produced by a 21-year-old student, My best gay friends has become a nationwide phenomenon with the first episode of the 15-part series breaking the one million view mark on Youtube over the weekend.