Although attitudes toward sex are slowly changing in China, they still remain ambiguous and the ongoing sexual revolution differs from that of the West in the 1960s, according to Richard Burger, author of “Behind the Red Door: Sex in China”. “The sexual revolution in the West was about self-expression and personal freedom. But in China, it’s [...]
R. Jyothi Prakash is a second year student in a private engineering college. “I am a transgender. My parents have no clue about my identity. But I have told my teachers and classmates and they have accepted it”, she says. “If I tell my parents about my identity now, they may not accept me and [...]
Richard Burger is the blogger behind Peking Duck, a record of his thoughts on China since 2003, when he first wrote about being in Beijing during SARS. Burger is also the author of Behind the Red Door: Sex in China, published by Earnshaw Books this week. He answered questions from Danwei by email about his new book. Why [...]
Rami, Marwan and Ahmad, three Lebanese homosexuals, live every day in fear, stigma and discrimination in their society. They say don't ask that to "go in a box without fear of being put by the police". In the Lebanon, reputed to be one of the most liberal countries in a conservative Middle East, [...]
Qasim and his partner Ali are in love and live together. They talk about going abroad to marry, but the only weddings they attend in Pakistan are arranged unions between their gay friends and unsuspecting women. Despite that, “it’s actually easier being gay in Pakistan than in the US,” says Qasim, 41, dragging on a [...]
People who define themselves as bisexual or be so read, are subject to specific discrimination. It manifests itself on the one in the invisibility of bisexuality and the other stereotypes against bisexual. The concept of 'Homophobia' is here insufficient and can not explain various forms of discrimination against bisexuals, but also a specific discrimination against lesbian and TRANS * gendern. [...]
British TV comedy has not, over the decades, treated its gay characters very kindly. Ever since 1972, and John Inman’s first cry of “I’m free” in Are You Being Served?, gay men have been parodied as camp and effeminate – with lesbians usually not featuring at all. Tonight – perhaps reflecting our more enlightened, tolerant [...]
Just when you might think books by ingenues-in-Asia were a thing of the past, a sub-species arrives: books by gay-ingenues-in-Asia. Gaysia is the second of Law’s cutely titled books, following The Family Law (2010), which made his reputation as a self-satirist. That led to media columns, TV and an Asialink fellowship that took him to [...]
LAST week Channel 4 in the UK screened a documentary on the secretive practice of “Dogging” – whereby strangers meet in known locations to engage in sex acts. And while there is no doubt the practice still takes place in the Dundalk area, it would appear that people engaged in dogging have left many of [...]
Malgré sa 43e place au classement des municipalités luttant contre l'homophobie 50 plus grandes, la ville est devenue un endroit où les couples homosexuels se sentent bien. Dans 10 ans, les associations de lutte contre l'homophobie n'existeront plus. Homophobie? Expulsée du dictionnaire. On regardera deux hommes qui se tiennent par la main avec la [...]
Who's afraid of saying lesbian? Several, in Italy. Will that, to us, female homosexuality is less popular than male – how many lesbians declared you saw on television? How many Italian actresses have outed? The fact is that little is spoken of lesbians. Yet exist. And a web series made in Rome, for the [...]
Section 377 of the Penal Code may not mean much to people in the UK today, but the law which criminalises homosexual acts is a British legacy still found in many former colonies in the Far East. However, it is now being challenged in Singapore. It is Monday night and the club is jam-packed. It [...]
The disc is a controversial cultural phenomenon: if often was accused of being a selfish and superficial, as well many other political movement qualities attributed to him. "The Secret Disk Revolution" seems to defend the latter. Based on the theories of Alice Echols (cultural critic who was DJ and wrote "Hot Stuff, And The [...]
I am 30 years old, was born and lived in an ordinary Soviet family in a major city and up to 11-12 years was utterly ordinary child, well studied, was walking in the yard, used to climb on roofs, basements and rolled around on a bicycle, was experiencing a widespread curiosity to what girls in panties. No to violence and sexual abuse had not been. In the 11-12 years I [...]