Lawmakers in Russia's second largest city, St Petersburg, passed a bill on Wednesday imposing fines for spreading gay "propaganda" among minors, a law critics said would effectively ban any gay pride events and could be used to clamp down on the LGBT community.
In 2011, moviegoers in Manila went wild for the campy gay horror film Zombadings 1: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington. Director Jade Castro and screenwriter Raymond Lee share their tales of creating the hit that grossed over 37 million pesos (US$800,000) at the box-office, and how the movie is in fact an "activist film" although some critics say it made light of anti-gay hate crimes.
Life is never easy when you are alone in a foreign country, let alone if you are a lesbian in Hong Kong, where the lesbian scene is preciously rare. In a city like Hong Kong, where people come and go so quickly and going out for drinks is almost the only option if you want to meet, how did Lee Harlem Robinson manage to lead a promiscuous life? Fridae’s reporter Tony Ed Lo speaks with Hannelore Arbyn, the person behind the story.
Doug Sanders spent four weeks in Myanmar in January and February. There are changes: More tourists, easier to change money but still only a few places where credit cards are taken. And is there a gay scene, he reports.
Audiences these days have come to expect "positive" gay-themed films from Thai filmmakers but Thai director-screenwriter Kongdej Jaturanrasamee, who recently screened his latest work P-047 at the Southeast Asian Film Festival in Singapore, says his country's filmmakers often aim for mainstream success by turning their gay and kathoey characters into targets for comedy.
The Human Rights Council's first-ever formal UN inter-governmental debate on violence and discrimination against LGBT people on March 7 was marked by the walk out by many representatives from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Arab group and the African group.
The creators of the popular 2010 Asian Pacific Male Calendar has teamed up with Filipino-American director RD Alba to create a new reality show based on their behind-the-scenes experiences of creating the calendar that featured 12 sexy Asian American men to raise funds for charity and have just completed filming a reality TV pilot.
Having had its world premiere at the recent Berlin Film Festival, Children of Srikandi – the first film to document the lives of queer women in Indonesia – will likely be screened at a LGBT film festival near you this year. Fridae speaks with co-producers Laura Coppens and Angelika Levi, and co-director Yulia Dwi Andriyanti about crowdfunding and the challenges facing queer women in Indonesia today.
It's easy to think of Thailand as being very LGBT-friendly with its numerous LGBT-oriented venues, and transgender females and cross-dressers who are regularly seen on TV soap operas and in public but LGBTs have not assimilated well into Thai society, writes a columnist in the Bangkok Post.
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