Fridae

In Thailand, organisers of the Phuket Gay Festival are appealing for visitors to return after the tsunami disaster last year while a suggestion to educate primary school students about homosexuality has outraged the Thai public; in the US, a gay Christian group is set to confront Focus On The Family.

Hong Kong will be asked what it thinks about homosexuals. Tim Cribb reports the survey will determine Hong Kong's direction on crucial gay issues, from discrimination to same-sex marriage and age of consent.

A total of 1,529 valid responses were collected in the second survey among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Singapore.

Fridae will hold its first ever party in Bangkok at the ultra-chic Bed Supperclub on April 15, 2005.

Fridae's starry-eyed movie critic, Alvin Tan, interviews Hong Kong actor Carl Ng and probes the Eurasian sensation about his role in Colour Blossoms (amongst other things) directed by Yongfan of Bishonen fame.

A fundraising concert organised by a Singapore Christian support group to promote HIV awareness has been given the axe by licensing authorities citing that the event would be "against public interest."

A group of members from local gay Christian support group, Safehaven are organising "affect05 - Saving Lives, Transforming Mindsets," a charity concert to raise funds for AfA and pass on the message of HIV awareness.

In the last column of the series, Hidesato Sakakibara talks about marriage, with his advice to those who are being pressured to get married - heterosexually, that is.

A San Francisco judge ruled that a California state law banning gay marriage is unconstitutional while in Taipei, gay-rights advocates defend bookstore owner charged with selling erotic magazines and in Saudi Arabia, two men were executed for killing a witness who saw their "shameful" act.

Singapore's Senior Minister of State for Health Balaji Sadasivan defends his remarks; gay group calls for decriminalisation of gay sex acts for safer sex outreach programmes to be more effective.