Fridae

A gay couple in New Jersey, US who were chased and beaten by Burger King employees following a 2007 altercation have been awarded US$3.15 million in a civil suit.

According to leaked U.S. embassy cables, David Kato, the murdered Ugandan gay activist, was ridiculed by a member of the Ugandan Human Rights Commission during his speech at a UN-funded “consultative meeting” in December 2009, to discuss MP David Bahati's Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The cables also reveal US diplomatic attempts to thwart passage of the bill.

Hawaii is on its way to becoming the seventh US state with a civil unions law after the bill, which grants gay and lesbian couples the same rights and benefits the state provides to married couples, was approved by lawmakers on Wednesday and is awaiting the signature of the governor.

Originally scheduled to board a flight to Indonesia on Feb 14, Anton Tanumihardja's deportation has been delayed until a decision is made by the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Between 127 to nearly 200 people, differing figures provided by various local news reports, were arrested at a "depraved and decadent" party in the north of Bahrain over the weekend.

The cover story of the latest issue of China's Sports Illustrated features openly gay sportspeople and interviews with five Chinese LGBTs who represented China at international sports events.

On Saturday, about 3,000 members of the LGBT community and their friends and family poured onto the streets of Mumbai to be visible and to reinforce the message of equal rights and acceptance.

Researchers from the Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) reported that despite the gay community's "silence", the number of the sub-group is "rising" and they have even "formed clubs exclusively catering to homosexual men."

Uganda's top opposition leader on Monday said the country's police have more pressing tasks than investigating homosexuality and suggested he would decriminalise the practice if elected.

Hafidz Baharom, a Malay-Muslim social commentator comes out as gay in a column in The Malaysian Insider, in support of Azwan Ismail whose appearance in a It Gets Better video sparked furore in the predominantly Muslim country.