Fridae

Gay men - who constitute 7.3 percent of the total HIV/AIDS sufferers in China estimated to number 650,000 in 2005 - will be the first group enlisted to help in a government-initiated program.

Organisers of the Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival are calling for entries for its 2007 short film contest to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS among gay men in the territory.

He's cute, has a good sense of humour; and is still single. Meet 27-year-old Didier Zheng who's the host of China's first gay Internet TV show. He tells Fridae in an exclusive interview about the government's restrictions on the show and the observations he has gleaned while hosting.

The Law Society of Singapore has released a statement disagreeing with the Ministry of Home Affairs' proposal to retain the country's laws against gay sex.

At 23, filmmaker Boo Junfeng is already being called the "next Royston Tan." His new gay short film Katong Fugue is based on Alfian Sa'at's play and has made it to the Singapore Film Fest finals. Viva gay cinema!

''There are two types of gay boyfriends in this world: The Ones Who Cheat, and The Ones Who Don't Cheat,'' says Jonathan Zhang who confesses to being a cheater when he first came out.

Should a recently circulated church statement, which called homosexuality "sinful, abhorrent and deviant" and for the criminalisation of lesbian sex, cause LGBTs to lose sleep? Fridae columnist and gay activist Alex Au weighs in on the issue.

As Singapore is looking at its first major review of its Penal Code in more than 20 years, the National Council of Churches has praised the government for its proposal to retain laws criminalising homosexual acts, and for the first time advocated the specific inclusion of lesbians in its scope.

Sen. Hillary Clinton has pledged to support gay causes if elected president in the 2008 race. Same-sex couples in Taiwan may soon be covered under the revised Domestic Violence Bill. In London, a man responsible for the 1999 bombing of a London gay bar, which killed three, has had his original prison sentence extended from 30 years to 50.

The Internet has on many occasions been credited as a liberating force for LGBTs but is it really? Alex Au examines the two features of the Internet that may work against LGBTs in reducing visibility of LGBT individuals as well as audience fragmentation given that surfers choose what they want to read online.