Fridae

As part of the “Amazing Thailand, Amazing Romance” campaign, Thailand is extending an invitation to same-sex couples alongside opposite-sex ones to use the “premium (immigration) lane” when entering Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok in February.

French MPs on Saturday approved the main clause in a bill to legalise same-sex marriage, despite huge protests earlier in the month that saw hundreds of thousands of people in Paris oppose the measure.

Members of the LGBT community in Singapore today expressed their disappointment and outrage over the prime minister's reasoning as to why section 377A of the Penal Code which criminalises gay sex should remain.

An elderly couple in Beijing, China who came out as gay and announced their upcoming marriage on Weibo, the popular Chinese microblogging social network, has attracted thousands of comments and gained over 5,000 fans in days.

President Barack Obama on Monday became the first US president to use the word “gay” and express his support for full equality for gay men and lesbians in his inauguration speech at the presidential swearing-in ceremony.

A second pastor, who appealed to his church members to support another church in its call to lobby the government to retain a law which criminalises sex between men, has deleted references to the issue from his statement.

Under new guidelines regulating commercial surrogacy arrangements in India, gay couples and single foreigners will no longer be eligible to have an Indian surrogate bear their child.

A pastor of a megachurch in Singapore has called on his congregation – with a visiting former Prime Minister in the audience – to lobby the government to retain a colonial-era law which criminalises sex between men.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying announced today that the government will not conduct consultations on enacting anti-discrimination laws that would ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in the territory.

Hong Kong saw a flurry of activity last weekend by both pro and anti-LGBT rights groups as a 5,000-strong crowd gathered to protest against the enactment of anti-discrimination laws. Meanwhile the Big Love Alliance was launched by legislator Cyd Ho, Raymond Ko reports.