Pakistani gay says life easier at home than in USA; culture helps mask same-sex affection   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 cigarette in a smart coffee shop, as he explains how to live under the radar in one of the world’s most conservative countries. “We can hold hands,” says Qasim, reaching for Ali under the table. “We can sit casually like this. Nobody gives it a second thought in Pakistan.” Qasim says he is never insulted in the street, or called names – something that happened when he lived in the United States. In tribal societies in Pakistan’s northwestern border

Lesbian couple Katie Cook and Maggie Young are traveling the world meeting LGBT people. Here they meet Jetsan in Lhasa, Tibet, who has found he is not alone.   By Katie Cook and Maggie Young Sapphic Nomads.com 31 March 2013 Re-posted from Sapphic Nomads-Tibet Finding gay Tibetans turned out to be as we expected – quite difficult. Into the Unknown We are on our international quest to find LGBT communities around the world, and we realized the Tibet Autonomous Region would be an especially challenging – and therefore intriguing – destination. It was a place we knew so little about and whose LGBT voice seemed so markedly absent from the world discourse. (photo right: Lhasa central view) We had read about the first public gay wedding this past October in China’s Fujian province, and we had heard that Shanghai even boasts a relatively vibrant gay scene. But what about Tibet?

By Ancient Ruins, a Gay Haven in Siem Reap, Cambodia (from New York Times) It was 10 p.m. in Siem Reap, and while most tourists were tucked in after a long, hot day exploring the temples of Angkor, things were just getting going at a bar called Linga. Pairs of European men in their 30s and 40s wearing unbuttoned collared shirts and checkered krama scarves sipped fruity cocktails and jostled for space with the young Khmer crowd, who huddled around small tables in anticipation of the main event: the Saturday night drag show. See story about LGBT drop-in center, Dragonfly House. A statuesque Khmer performer who went by the name Beyoncé took to the stage draped in a black, body-skimming floor-length gown and wearing a blond Afro wig. Soon, everyone was on his feet, belting out a song from “Dreamgirls.” The traffic outside literally stopped. Curious travelers, Khmer families and

Mongolia: Tales of a Dusty City, Friendly Nomads and a Few LGBT Natives   by Maggie Young http://www.sfreporter.com/santafe/blog-3973-sapphic-nomads-two-santa-feans-explore-mongolia.html Last summer (2012), we (Katie Cook and Maggie Young), photo right, went on a year-long journey to discover the range of LGBT experiences of people we meet around the world.  Along the way, we are seeking out, meeting with, and interviewing LGBT folks.  In addition to adding to our own (admittedly limited) insight and education, we have been creating audio segments for the radio station, This Way Out, as well as collecting hundreds of hours of film footage for a future documentary about global LGBT issues.  We call ourselves the Sapphic Nomads. Our journey took us to Mongolia, a small hilly, desert-y country in Central Asia with a population of only 2.8 million, sandwiched between China and Russia.  We arrived to this beautiful and somewhat incongruous country via the Mongolian Express, which

          Google Images for BhutanPosted .

Our Lesbian Sisters in Singapore An interview with a leading lesbian rights activist in Singapore, Jean Chong of lesbian group Sayoni 09 January 2013 Gay Star News The LGBT rights movement in Singapore has been mainly dominated by gay men, but Gay Star News met Jean Chong of lesbian group Sayoni and discovered that sisters are doing it for themselves.Did you have any role models when you were growing up as a lesbian in Singapore?No, I always wished there were lesbian role models when I was growing up. There were so much confusion, silence and questions.It was hard to even reach out to other LGBT persons because there was no internet in my teenage years until I was in tertiary education. It was only at that time with greater freedom to travel, with some help from the internet and books that I finally found the language for the many questions

Bangkok city is like no other with its complex mix of modern skyscrapers, super-engineered SkyTain (and subway) and many exotic old world Buddhist temples and adoration of the aging King. Up-scale life is abundantly visible in the countless Mercedes cars (and an occasional Rolls Royce) and 5-star high-rise luxury condo towers. Low-scale life is visible in every back alley where small dark houses are home to the working class. There are of course many midscale houses crowded between these two extremes of the urban jungle. In a city of 8 million, everything is crowded but the city pulse continues daily and smoothly, including the relatively small LGBT scene.      Posted .

It’s hard to imagine anywhere in the world a city with more food offerings than Bangkok, Thailand. Street kitchens by the thousands, tiny pantries, hole-in-the-wall eateries, open air market food stalls, fast food chains, 7-11 stores snacks, elegant 5-star restaurants–open day and night, many until midnight, fewer all night with customers eating plates of rice, fish, chicken, noodles, veggies, crepes, strange looking green things… Abundant and ubiquitous are all these food fountains that steam, deep fry, stir fry, boil, bake their particular specialty. A picture is worth more than a thousand words.   Posted Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand.

Brunei became a British protectorate in 1888, receiving a governor in 1906. In the years after the Japanese wartime occupation during World War II, it formalised a constitution and fought an armed rebellion. Brunei regained its independence from the United Kingdom on 1 January 1984. Economic growth during the 1970s and 1990s, averaging 56% from 1999 to 2008, has transformed Brunei Darussalam into a newly industrialised country. Brunei has the second highest Human Development Index among the South East Asia nations after Singapore, and is classified as a developed country. Nevertheless, homosexuality is very illegal here and poorly understood.   Google Image Gallery for Brunei Gay Brunei Story Posted Limbang, Tutong, Brunei Darussalam.

Bhutan’s landscape ranges from subtropical plains in the south to the sub-alpine Himalayan heights in the north, with some peaks exceeding 7,000 metres (23,000 ft). The state religion is Vajrayana Buddhism, and the population of 691,141 is predominantly Buddhist, with Hinduism the second-largest religion. The capital and largest city is Thimphu. In 2008, Bhutan made the transition from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy, holding its first general election.    Google Image Gallery for Bhutan Gay Bhutan Story Posted Trongsa, Bhutan.

Article 213 in Chapter 14 of the Penal Code of Bhutan states, “A defendant shall be guilty of the offense of unnatural sex, if the defendant engages in sodomy or any other sexual conduct that is against the order of nature” Does unnatural sex, which is graded as a petty misdemeanor, include homosexuality? How rife is homosexuality in Bhutan?   Still a Taboo Homosexuality is still a taboo topic in modern Bhutan. Whenever there is talk of the subject most people ask, “Are there gays in Bhutan?” Many Bhutanese people still have shocked expressions on their faces when there are any discussions about homosexuality. But more shocking is that even the educated are ignorant about the fact that there is a gay population in Bhutan. Letro is a young man with a normal career and friends. He has the same interests as any young man. But he is exclusively gay.

Azerbaijan has an ancient and historic cultural heritage, including the distinction of being the first Muslim-majority country to have operas, theater and plays. The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was established in 1918, but was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920.Azerbaijan regained independence in 1991. Google Image Gallery for Azerbaijan Gay Azerbaijan Story Posted .

Armenia is the only country remaining from 3,000 year old maps of Anatolia. It became the world’s first Christian country more than 1,700 years ago in 301 AD, and has a large Diaspora all over the world. As a former Soviet republic lying in the Caucasus region, straddling Asia and Europe, Armenia has an ancient and rich culture. Armenia is very easy to experience, thanks to very hospitable people. Read more on Wikipedia. Google image gallery of Armenia Gay Armenia story    Posted .

Introduction “You will not find any gay bars or clubs in Ashgabat (‘City of Love’), the capital city of Turkmenistan, despite a population of about one million people; homosexuality is illegal in Turkmenistan.” That is the welcoming message to gays from this rural and desolate country on the Caspian Sea in western Asia.  The LGBT ‘scene’ is hardly that. Not surprising, Turkmen gays and lesbians tend to be in the closet although there is a small gay community in the capital. “Gay Life in Turkmenistan” is very secretive and they keep to themselves, for good reason since the culture is Muslim and the country was brutalized by the Soviets and nearly destroyed by the thankfully deceased anti-gay dictator Saparmurat Niyazov from 1991 to 2006. Country Description Turkmenistan declared independence on 27 October 1991, one of the last Soviet republics to secede. Turkmenistan gained official recognition on 25 December 1991, a day

Introduction A visit to Uzbekistan is a lesson in retrograde human rights policies. The level of respect for freedom of press and expression is very low. The country is politically a police state filled with the usual  paranoia, repression, corruption and strong-arm enforcement of socialist ideologies that bring more suffering to people than progress. Needless to  say, the LGBT community in Uzbekistan is virtually non-existent as an organization even for health care purposes. The infamous jailing of an author of a HIV prevention brochure in 2010 caused outrage from human rights activists. His crime was to mention same sex activity in his educational brochure. It will be a long time before “Gay Life in Uzbekistan” and human rights take their rightful place in national policies in Uzbekistan.   Compiled by Richard Ammon GlobalGayz.com March 2012   Country Description Decades of questionable Soviet policies in pursuit of greater cotton production have

Introduction Both male and female same-sex sexual activities are legal in Tajikistan since 1998. The age of consent is 17.  But police are are reticent to address hate crimes, including the murder of a gay man in Dushanbe in 2011. Police have also been known to blackmail closeted individuals by threatening to expose them. Enclose here are three reports that offer analysis and overview of the challenges faced by LGBT activists and citizens in their efforts to bring about an acceptable “GayLife in Tajikstan”.   (1) Tajikistan: LGBT Community Stuck in the Shadows; No help – and sometimes worse – for the LGBT community in Tajikistan From Eurasianet.org January 23, 2012 Like many 28-year-olds in Tajikistan, Parviz is married. He and his wife have three children that they adore. But Parviz has a secret he can’t even share with his closest loved ones. “I got married at age 20 because

Introduction There is such fear and secrecy–and propaganda–about many aspects of North Korea that it is difficult to find anything reliable about everyday life there–and doubly so about homosexuality. The concept of same-sex attraction or “Gay Life in North Korea” hardly exists in the minds of people. Even with people who feel this attraction, there is ignorance about what it means or how it can be expressed in behavior. Compiled by Richard Ammon GlobalGayz.com May 20, 2005 Updated March 2012 Something About the Gay Situation in North Korea? A GlobalGayz.com reader recently wrote : I’d like to know something about the gay situation in North Korea. Could you send me an e-mail if you know something? GlobalGayz response: There is such fear and secrecy about many aspects of North Korea that it is difficult to find anything reliable about everyday life there–and doubly so about homosexuality. The concept of same-sex

Introduction Kyrgyzstan presents a difficult challenge for homosexual people. It is politically unstable with a recent history of violence among major ethnic groups; it is mostly rural with a population that is 80% Muslim and education levels are low. Corruption is common which results in widespread poverty. In such an environment any chance for tolerance toward “Gay Life in Kyrgyzstan” is slim despite the fact that same-sex activity was decriminalized in 1998, before the breakdown of the Soviet rulers in Kyrgyzstan. The main LGBT organization in Kyrgyzstan is Labrys: http://kyrgyzlabrys.wordpress.com/  Also at this site. (photo right: Labrys members during the Equality Caravan human rights tour at Lake Issyk-Kul) Country Description On 6 April 2010, a demonstration in the capital of Talas protested against government corruption and increased living expenses.  A revolution ensued that overthrew the former president and resulted in the adoption of a new constitution and the appointment of

Introduction East Timor (Timor L’este) is unique in southeast Asia–it is Roman Catholic, standing nearly alone among thousands of Islamic Indonesian islands (other than the Philippines, which is also catholic). But such a distinction does not make it any easier for LGBT citizens to live their personal lives. Male and female “gay life in East Timor”‘ is legal. There was a clause against discrimination based on sexual orientation included in the original draft of the Timorese Constitution but it was voted out by 52 out of 88 MPs before the constitution took effect in 2002. A modest effort has been made to bring support to the LGBT community with the creation of a website called Gay Timor (http://gaytimor.blogspot.com/) but a recent visit in March 2012 shows no activity there since September 2011 so one is left wondering about its viability. In Timor L’este it’s a little easier to be a

“Gay life in Brunei” is not a cause for celebration but rather for secrets and hidden desire. Same-sex love is forbidden in the sultanate and punishable with imprisonment (up to 10 years imprisonment or a fine of 30,000 Brunei dollars). It is a cruel fate to be born gay here under the shroud of Islam. Nevertheless, many people are born with this sexual orientation–despite ignorant assertions to the contrary–and are faced with a life of suppression and anxiety as they try to fit in smoothly with their cultural traditions and with the rules of their religion. First Formal Study In recent years there has been a tiny opening to the issue of homosexuality in Brunei as a formal study was made by academics at the University of Brunei Darussalam and presented in January 2011 at the ‘Social Issues In Brunei Darussalam’ seminar at the university. Titled ‘Gay In Brunei Darussalam:

Azerbaijan gay life is an emerging scene. Surrounded by rugged wilderness of high mountains and immense seas the fledgling “gay life in Azerbaijan” is also surrounded by Islamic homophobia and traditional ‘family values’. The balance between secular liberal tolerance and conservative religious rejection of sexual varieties is tipped toward the latter. But influences from the West–especially by potential EU membership with its human rights standards–have given courage and hope to many LGBT citizens for a brighter future. Homosexuality has been removed as a crime and a brave LGBT organization has appeared. (photo right: Azerbaijan coat of arms)   Country Description Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, Azerbaijan has an ancient and historic cultural heritage. The country was among the birthplaces of mankind and is located at the heart of ancient civilizations.Furthermore the country is known to be among the most progressive and secular Islamic societies. Aside

by Rainer Ebert 30 January 2012 Babu and Arif have been friends from childhood. They went to school together, played on the same cricket team and had no secrets – except one, but only until recently. While they were out having phuchkas at a street stand somewhere in Dhaka, Arif suddenly slipped into an awkward silence for a couple of seconds. “Babu, shon, toke amar kichu bolar ache… Listen, I want to tell you something…” “What is it, dosto?” “I haven’t been fully honest with you… Remember when I told you that I really like that girl? That wasn’t quite true. It’s actually her brother I like. I am gay.” Babu, shocked at the unexpected confession and not quite sure how to respond, got up and walked away. No matter how often Arif tried to call Babu in the following days, there was no response. Six months went by until

By Lisa Out & Around: Stories from a Not-So-Straight Journey Jan 04, 2012 In 2009 in a landmark case, the Delhi High Court challenged the constitutionality of India’s anti-sodomy law, Section 377. The results have catapulted India into a stronger gay rights movement. Out & Around met with Aditya Bondyopadhyay (photo right), a leading attorney on the legal team that constructed the case. Aditya now spends most of his time training attorneys across India on LGBT rights. Out & Around: Tell us about your work leading up to the decriminalization of homosexuality in 2009. Aditya: I worked on the case beginning in 2001. The case became a focus of mobilization for LGBT activists. Earlier, people were doing their own things due to geography in this country being so vast. What the case really did was unite groups across India by way of a national movement. We had a common enemy,

By Lisa Out & Around: Stories From a Not-So-Straight Journey Jan 09, 2012 In a bursting country of billion people, it’s rare to be known as the “first” to do anything. Yet, journalist Ashok Row Kavi (photo right) is well-known in India for being the first gay person to come out publicly in the country. His first coming out interview was in 1986 with Savvy Magazine, an Indian feminist magazine, explaining what “gay” really meant. With his background in journalism, he founded Bombay Dost, India’s first gay magazine in 1990. In 1994, Ashok went on to establish the Humsafar Trust, a large sexual health NGO in India which focuses on HIV and LGBT rights. We caught up with Ashok in Delhi to talk about gay life in India… Out & Around: What is unique about India? Ashok: Everybody looks at India like a country, a nation. I think this is

The practice of taking young boys to perform as dancers at private parties is known as bacha bazi (literally, “boy for play”) and is an Afghan tradition with very deep roots. Under Taliban rule, it was banned, but it has crept back and is now widespread, flourishing also in the cities, including the capital, Kabul, and a common feature of weddings, especially in the north. The bacha dancers are often abused children whose families have rejected them. Their “owners” or “masters” can be single or married men, who keep them in a form of sexual slavery, as concubines. The bachas are usually released at the age of 19, when they can get married and reclaim their status as “male”, though the stigma of having lived as a bacha is hard to overcome. The Afghan authorities and human rights groups are aware of the plight of bacha boys, but seem powerless