Fridae

Some three million people packed the streets of Sao Paulo for what organisers claim to be the world's largest gay pride parade.

To coincide with gay pride month in the US, major cable television network CNN's special 5-day report about the America's LGBT community culminates on June 27, or June 28 for viewers in Asia.

It has been highlighted that HIV infections among MSM in Hong Kong are those which concern health experts the most. Guest columnist Nigel Collett urges the community to act without delay in response to recent statistics which showed a sharp rise in new HIV infections among MSM in the territory.

Ordained as a pastor at the Metropolitan Community Church in New York in May, Oyoung Wenfeng, an award-winning Malaysian journalist and columnist, tells Fridae about coming out as a gay man and his plans to set up an all-inclusive church in Malaysia in 2010.

Hailed as "groundbreaking'' by the state government, a gay male couple in Perth is believed to be the first gay couple in the country to adopt a stranger's child under the amended adoption laws.

Alan Chambers, the head of Exodus International, believed to be the world's largest ministry for former gays, no longer believes the term "ex-gay" is appropriate to describe those who have undergone religious reparative therapy to be "set free" from homosexuality.

Inspired by Singapore's MM Lee Kuan Yew's recent reference to a magazine article about the English university having openly acknowledged gay love for almost 400 years which influenced the statesman's views that Singapore has "no option" but to decriminalise gay sex, columnist Dr Tan Chong Kee finds proof of same sex love being recorded throughout 2,000 years of Chinese history. Part 2 of 2.

Fridae blogger Jonathan Zhang lives to tell of his recent experience of going to a stranger's home on the pretext of getting a no strings attached two-hour full body massage session which soonafter turned into a full blown bondage and submission experience.

Launched last Saturday, the Thai Rainbow Archives project aims to archive Thailand's gay, lesbian and transgender heritage. Douglas Sanders has more on the project and history of gay magazines in Thailand.

Although rumours about the 'gay bomb' initially surfaced in 2004, San Francisco's CBS 5 News station reported last Friday that Pentagon officials admitted military leaders had considered, and then subsequently rejected, building the so-called gay bomb in 1994.