Fridae

Pink Dot Okinawa, which is the first public LGBT-affirmative event in the prefecture, attracted 800 participants on Sunday, July 14.

The Bangkok Post last week quoted a health report that said that increasing number of HIV infections are among "white collar, professional and well-educated" gay men.

Democratic Action Party assemblyman Teh Yee Cheu, who heads the panel with the support of both Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan National representatives, has appointed a transgender woman to the committee, a first appointment of its kind in Malaysia.

From 3 to 20 July 2013, Singapore-based theatre group Wild Rice is staging a festival of works by bad-ass playwright and political commentator Alfian Sa’at, with a particular focus on his landmark gay play Dreamplay: Asian Boys Vol. I.

Penang's state assembly last week debated an assemblyman's proposal to set up a committee to oversee the welfare and needs of 'Mak Nyahs' (transgenders) in the northern state.

In addition to hiring a senior partner from a prominent Singapore law firm, the plaintiffs have applied to have England's former attorney-general Queen's Counsel Lord Peter Goldsmith act as co-counsel in their appeal.

One of the top three universities in Thailand has introduced two LGBT courses, a breakthrough in the country and the region. Doug Sanders reports from Bangkok.

Syphilis cases among men who have sex with men (MSM) have more than doubled from 5% in 2005 to 12.5% in 2011 while the annual prevalence of HIV also rose "significantly" from 24.5% in 2005 to 29.4% in 2011 among MSM.

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.

Following the success of Singapore's Pink Dot rally with a record turnout of 21,000, writer Lisa Li reminds the community that as the movement grows it needs to be more accepting of diversity within its ranks, and argues that LGBTs should be accepted as equal members of society as human beings and not just because we are "law-abiding... or productive members of the economy."