This Director Just Did In China What “Brokeback Mountain” Couldn’t 10 Years Ago

...get official approval to show his gay romance film in Chinese theaters.

Looking For Rohmer, or “Seek McCartney” as it’s sometimes incorrectly called, is adapted from Wang’s short novel telling “an emotional story about two men,” the director’s statement on the website of 2015 Shanghai International Film Festival says.

It took a year for the film to pass China’s strict censorship. But hearing the film survived with no edits being made, the well-known filmmaker immediately took to Sina Weibo and wrote, “a small step for censors, a big step for filmmakers.” Read more via Buzzfeed

Out in Japan, a spotlight featuring sexual minorities in Japan

Out in Japan is an attempt to highlight the presence of LGBT people in daily life -- a community that is not especially high-profile in Japan. Some Out in Japan #002 participants offered suggestions about how to make the fairly invisible LGBT community more visible, while others spoke about the obstacles to doing so. Read more

Bangladesh gets first lesbian comic strip

Bangladesh's first comic strip featuring a young lesbian discovering her sexuality has been launched in the capital to raise awareness of the plight of gays in the conservative Muslim-majority nation.

Boys of Bangladesh, the country's largest gay rights group, on Saturday night launched "Dhee", the Bengali word for intellect or wisdom.

"By creating Dhee, we want to shape perception of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people, because we should be free to choose whom to love," Mehnaz Khan, one of the four content developers of the comic, told the AFP news agency.

"It's about carrying the message to all." Read more via Aljazeera

Russia: Moscow premiere film festival gets canceled after government pulls funding

The culture department shifted funding to a new “positive, youth-oriented” festival, the Youth Festival of Life Affirming Film, headed by Yevgeny Gerasimov, member of United Russia.

Vyacheslav Shmyrov, head of the canceled festival, said that Moscow Premiere had a “very different program,” including Russia-88 and Winter’s Path, movies about Russian neo-Nazis and a “gay-themed debut feature that struggled to get distribution in Russia."   Read More via Think Progress 

India: Supreme Court effectively shelves Gujarati film, says homosexuality akin to social evil for some

Observing that a section of society may perceive homosexuality as akin to “social evils”, the Supreme Court has effectively pushed into cold storage the release of a Gujarati film that depicts the “sufferings of a homosexual” prince from the state.

Meghdhanyshya — The colour of life is based on the true story of the “gay prince of Rajpipla”, Manvendra Singh Gohil, and has been cleared by the Censor Board, but will now not be seen for at least 3 years.

“I think the movie is killed,” filmmaker Devmani said. “It cannot wait for another three or four years when there is no certainty that the court will eventually rule in my favour. It is ironical that movies showing extra-marital relationships and containing scenes of rape and violence are given the exemption but a movie depicting sufferings of a homosexual person does not pass the state’s muster,” he added. Read More via Indian Express

Gay in Cameroon: National team bans fastest-ever hurdler

On Aug. 8, Thierry Essamba suffered a setback — another setback. Just as in 2014, he was again forbidden from competing because of his sexual orientation. The fact that he is the fastest hurdler in Cameroon — the nation’s record-holder in the 110-meter hurdles — didn’t secure him the right to compete again for the gold.

He recalls his emotions as the Central Africa Track and Field Championships got under way: “I felt so bad. I wondered if I were no longer a Cameroonian...I felt someone had just thrown me out of Cameroon. I cried. I felt excluded from the country that I love so much. “

Much has happened since Essamba was expelled from the squad by Michel Nkolo, the technical director of Cameroon’s national track team. Soon afterward, Essamba’s family evicted him from his home. He was left with no means of support. He fell into depression and tried to commit suicide. But he did not do that — and he did not give up on racing. He kept training. He ran faster.   Read More via 76 Crimes

US: With endorsement from Target, corporate support for the Equality Act continues to grow

HRC hailed Target for its announcement this morning that it is has endorsed the recently-introduced Equality Act, a landmark federal bill that would guarantee explicit, permanent protections for LGBT people from discrimination in many of the most important aspects of their lives.

Currently, 31 states across the country lack fully-inclusive non-discrimination protections for LGBT Americans. Target joins a number of leading American corporations, including Amazon, American Airlines, Apple, the Dow Chemical Company, Facebook, General Electric, General Mills, Google, HP, IBM, Intel, Levi Strauss & Co, Microsoft, Nike, Oracle, Orbitz, PayPal and Symantec Corporation in support of federal LGBT non-discrimination protections.

The Equality Act provides basic protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, access to public spaces, housing, education, jury service, credit and federal funding.  Read More via Human Rights Campaign

Globally, one in four people have a transgender work colleague

The latest Randstad Workmonitor survey has explored global attitudes to sexual orientation diversity in the workplace. One of the questions asked employees in 34 countries whether they had any transgender work colleagues.

On average, 26% of those polled said that they had one (or more) transgender colleagues. This figure rose to 45% in Greece, 46% in Brazil and 50% in India. In the US, 29% of those polled said they had a transgender work colleague, while the figure was 26% in the UK.

Helen Belcher, of Trans Media Watch said, ‘Trans issues have been treated as marginal and unimportant for years. I’ve been saying for a long time that trans issues don’t just affect the trans person, but their families, friends and work colleagues also. Read More via Gay Star News 

Singapore: More accessible to queer travellers than ever before

In June, Singapore’s current PM Lee Hsien Loong eagerly reminded progressive critics that “There are gay groups in Singapore, there are gay people in Singapore and they have a place to stay here and we let them live their own lives. And we do not harass them or discriminate against them.”

Singapore’s legal code tells a slightly different story: male homosexuality remains a crime under Section 377A; LGBT defence force personnel are banned from serving in “sensitive” units, and anti-discrimination laws, as well as recognition for same-sex couples, are completely off the table for the foreseeable future.

Yet there’s also some truth to Lee’s claim. Section 377A has not been enforced in years, and seemingly remains on the books to appease the country’s influential Christian organisations. Singapore may be in no hurry to shake its rigorously organised reputation. But those who arrive expecting a staid, joyless police state will quickly discover a side of the city that’s keen to subvert expectations. Read More via Daily Xtra

Myanmar spirit festival offers rare space for gay community

Waving their floral offerings in the air, devotees danced through a temple to celebrate Myanmar's biggest spirit festival which has also become a rare host for the country's marginalised gay community. The six-day spirit or "nat" celebration in Taungbyone village, around 20 kilometres from the central city of Mandalay, draws thousands of revellers each year in search of karmic reward as well as all-night parties.

Gay people in the former junta-run nation still routinely suffer discrimination despite sweeping modernisation in recent years that has started to create more openness. At Taungbyone, however, there is a warm welcome and many of the most well-regarded mediums are gay or transvestite, providing advice and a direct line to the spirits by day and spending evenings dancing in elaborate costumes as part of the celebrations.

Same-sex relations are criminalised under Myanmar's colonial-era penal code, and although the law is not strictly enforced, activists say it is still used by authorities to discriminate and extort. But taboos around homosexuality have begun to be relaxed after a quasi-civilian government replaced military rule in 2011.  Read More via Bangkok Post

This terrifying new Windows 10 feature could ‘out’ kids to their parents

Computers running Windows 10 could be automatically telling parents that their teens are visiting LGBT support websites. The new operating system, which was rolled out last month as a free upgrade, has raised concern over the new ‘activity reports‘ feature.

The feature is enabled by default for users who have set up registered ‘family’ accounts, sending weekly breakdowns of browsing history to the parents – even if the kids browse anonymously or try to clear it. Once active, the feature emails the parents a weekly summary of all the child’s internet usage, including the details of websites visited.

The tool also specifically flags up search terms and blocked content that children tried to access – meaning that teens experimenting with their sexuality could have their sexual fantasies emailed directly to their parents. Read More via PinkNews 

Philippines: Typhoon Grindr, liberation, and post-disaster sex

“Before Haiyan, all we had on Grindr was mehhhh – four or five people. After Haiyan, boom – white men!” Jericho*, 28, finds it hard to recall much of a social scene in Tacloban before Typhoon Haiyan. A senior manager at one of the Filipino city’s most expensive hotels, he recounts a routine that consisted of going to the gym in the morning and walking home along empty streets after dark in a city where “everyone knows everyone.” 

2013's Typhoon Haiyan was clearly a disaster, but it was also a powerful gust of change, not least in Jericho’s social life. While some residents have left Tacloban to cope with trauma or find work, the city has welcomed an influx of professional aid workers, able-bodied gap year volunteers, and fellow Filipinos seeking opportunities and hoping to help in the recovery. 

“Overnight,” Jericho says, “my Grindr became the United Nations.”

In the immediate aftermath of Haiyan, patchy mobile phone signal notwithstanding, survivors longing for intimacy turned to Grindr to arrange discreet meet-ups with aid workers, who themselves sought distraction. Grindr is also used to forge platonic friendships, especially as foreign visitors, local volontourists and disaster researchers (author included) longed for social spaces to unwind from physically and emotionally demanding relief work. Read More via IRIN