The so-called National Organisation for Marriage (NOM), an anti-gay activist group based in the United States, has declared war on Starbucks for supporting a gay marriage bill in its home state of Washington. When support for its "Dump Starbucks" campaign proved to be all too disappointing, the group decided to expand the boycott to countries that it thought would support its anti-gay message -- namely Muslim countries such as Indonesia, Turkey and those in the Middle East, and China. more ›

Of the more than 500 couples who queued up last month on Valentine's Day at Beijing's Chaoyang district marriage registration centre on to get hitched, two couples were turned down by centre officials and walked away without marriage licenses. The two same-sex couples -- one male, and one female -- had shown up at the marriage office as part of a campaign by the Beijing LGBT Centre to drum up support for gay marriage in China. Online TV series Queer Comrades was there to catch the action. more ›

Of the more than 500 couples who queued up on Tuesday at Beijing's Chaoyang district marriage registration centre on to get hitched on Valentine's Day, two couples were turned down by centre officials and walked away without marriage licenses. more ›

A survey by Jiayuan.com, one of the largest dating websites in China, has found that 80% of youths born after 1980s say they do not discriminate against homosexuality: more ›

Here's yet another prime example of how Taiwan is light years ahead of the rest of Asia: A court has ruled against an employee of a gay massage parlour who sued his boss for defamation after he used his image in an advertisement placed on a gay magazine. The judge's rationale? The assertion that someone's gay is no longer defamatory today. more ›

In a story that will surely enrage penguin fundamentalists everywhere, two gay penguins at the Harbin Polar Land have become adoptive parents. When a female penguin hatched twin chicks on November 28, the park staff decided to give one of the little guys to a gay penguin couple who, get this, are notorious for trying to steal eggs from the straight penguins! more ›

Xinhua today trumpets a series of changes to the national code of conduct for prison inmates made by the Ministry of Justice in order to "show respect for the human rights of prison inmates". Among the changes: an end to the practise of forcing inmates to squat with both hands behind their heads, a lift on the ban on dyed hair (particularly among female inmates) and the use of execution by lethal injection to replace the firing squad (we'll still kill you but in a more humane fashion). more ›

Tencent, the Chinese Internet giant that is known for its instant messaging software QQ, has apologised for describing Apple's new CEO Tim Cook as a "sufferer of homosexuality" ("同性恋患者") in a recent article on its content portal. more ›

The Golden Horse Awards (金马奖), considered the Oscars of Chinese cinema, has broken with its 48-year tradition of inviting the previous year's winners to present the next year's awards by announcing its decision to rescind its invitation to Lü Liping (吕丽萍) to its 2011 event. more ›

The views expressed by Professor Peng Xiaohui (彭晓辉) of the Central China Normal University at a lecture last Tuesday entitled “Sex and Interpersonal Relationships" has fired up a maelstrom of debate, among students present at the lecture and online. more ›

Early this morning at around 1am, police raided Q Bar, a new gay bar on the Bund, and detained at least 50 patrons of the bar. more ›

It sure looks like guerilla tactics are becoming the favoured weapon of choice for gay activists around China (see here and here). Inspired by the Qianmen wedding that took place in Beijing in 2009, a gay couple and a lesbian couple recently hit the streets of Wuhan and got "married" for the world to see. more ›

Big news from the world of science today: A group of Chinese scientists from the National Institute of Biological Sciences have appeared to find a way to regulate sexual preference in male mice. more ›

There's always so much to prep for before a big vacation. You have to clear out those work emails before you go, figure out how to squeeze your things into a 20kg suitcase, find someone to feed your fish while you're gone and if you're the government, you need to raid a gay park. more ›

They are both one of the 17 countries that still don't allow gays in the military and also execute people, according to this infographic from Esquire. Though there's signs that the U.S.'s policy towards the homosexual soldier thing may have changed. more ›

A lively debate is going on over at ChinaDivide, where Charles Custer (who also edits the amazing ChinaGeeks blog) has followed up on our recent reports on religious developments within China and added in his own opinion. The comment section is well worth a read if you have the time but here's a money quote from Custer: "Look, I like a story about bigots being bigoted in the name of Jesus as much as the next guy (i.e., not at all), but if this sort of stuff has to happen, can’t we keep it confined to the crazies in America? China has enough social problems, it doesn’t need to import America’s." more ›

Elder Fu Xianwei (傅先伟长老), the chairman of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (三自爱国运动) and the highest-ranking official of the state-approved Protestant church, is now home from last week's conference of anti-gay Anglican bishops in Singapore. more ›

• A gay singer in Hunan province has been arrested for murder after allegedly killing six men in elaborate sex games involving sado-masochism, erotic asphyxiation and hanging.
• Up north in Beijing, a new group called Beijing Period has come together to host monthly LGBT events such as the Mr & Mr Dating Game Show at the highly popular White Rabbit club.
• Back home in Shanghai, new gay bar The Box has been hosting matchmaking sessions for young gay men and women seeking to come together in faux marriages.

• Earlier, the South China Morning Post accidentally put the Chinese name for Hu Jia, human rights activist (currently under arrest and recently denied medical leave), in a story about Hu Jintao. ESWN garnered reactions from the press. [ESWN]
• We've mentioned tongqi - the wives of gay men - and their troubles before. But, not that anyone needed reminding, life isn't easy for the other half either. Here's a good piece on why gays decide to marry, even when they're absolutely sure of their sexual orientation [Christian Science Monitor]
• "All across Africa, new tracks are being laid, highways built,ports deepened, commercial contracts signed—all on an unprecedented scale, and led by China, whose appetite for commodities seems insatiable. Do China’s grand designs promise the transformation,at last, of a star-crossed continent? Or merely its exploitation?" [The Atlantic]

The Economist has a very good article up on the unfortunate lives of tongqi, women who have married gay men. In America, about 15 to 20% of gay men marry heterosexual women. In China, that figure may be as high as 90%. Called tongqi, a mix between 同志 (tongzhi - "comrade," a slang term for gays) and 妻子 (qi zi - wife), there are an estimated 25 million of them. Some places have popped up online to be a sounding board for their frustrations - many, despite knowing their husbands are gay, choose not to leave them because of familial pressure. more ›

Earlier this month, while all eyes were on what was to be China's first ever Mr Gay China pageant, we totally overlooked a trip made by Germany's openly gay Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. This was Westerwelle's first trip to Asia in his new role since he led the pro-business Free Democratic Party to its best election result ever late last year. What made this trip newsworthy, in our opinion, was that the world's only openly gay foreign minister was bringing his partner, Michael Mronz (a marketing executive working in the private sector) along on an official visit to Asia. This is unheard of. more ›

AP breaks the news:

Organizers of China first gay pageant say police forced them to cancel the event just one hour before it was to start. more ›

Shanghaiist editor-at-large and expert on all things gay, Kenneth Tan, recently helped CNNGo compile a list of essential terms for anyone trying to break into Shanghai's LGBT scene. We already knew about 同志(tongzhi) and 拉拉(lala), the respective names for Chinese gays and lesbians, but we didn't realize there was also a phrase for "white fever" (吃土豆的) and that Chinese gays come out of the cupboard (出柜) rather than the closet. Teach us more! more ›

Recently "Tale of 4 Cities" launched it's weekly dinner "theater" series, a Thursday cabaret evening with the vision to impart a bit of "Le Gai Paris" into Shanghai´s nightlife scene. The problem is, if you're looking for actual "theater," the show invariably will seem like it doesn't fit. It's a drag show, pure and simple - and a charming one full of social potential - so you might as well just call it by its proper name and put it in its proper genre. more ›

U.S. President Obama has nominated the first openly gay person to become an ambassador and - would you look at that? - he's based in Shanghai! Shanghai Pride, for real. David Huebner heads the China Practice and International Disputes Practice of Los Angeles law firm Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton from its Shanghai office. While his position still needs to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he's been nominated to be ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. Source: Bloomberg more ›

Update: Due to ownership quarrels, the film Buenos Aires Zero Degree will not be screened as planned on Thursday. Vienna Café is replacing it with Stephen Daldry´s The Hours. And while that´s an awesome movie, it´s still a sad exchange, since The Hours has probably already been seen by most of us and is very easy to access - while...heaven knows when we´ll get the chance to see that Wong Kar Wai Documentary again... more ›

Renowned sexologist and sociologist Li Yinhe (李银河) writes in a recent blogpost on China's laws against gay blood donors. A group of lesbians in Beijing are now fighting for the right to donate blood: more ›

Renowned sexologist and sociologist Li Yinhe (李银河) in a recent blogpost on the lives of tongqi (同妻), heterosexual women who find themselves married to gay Chinese men (translation adapted from Yawning Bread): more ›

The fastest rising demographic of people contracting HIV/AIDS in Shanghai are "city men who have sex with men," according to Shanghai Daily. At a medical forum yesterday, experts said that the amount of HIV/AIDS cases involving these fraternizations has risen fivefold. While incidences of syphilis have remained relatively stable, the HIV/AIDS incidence rate has increased from 1.5% in 2005 to 7.5% in 2007. The forum emphasized that as society is becoming more tolerant o the LGBTa community, intervention and education initiatives should be intensified. more ›

我想提醒你的是，这里是外交部的新闻发布厅，
不是讨论同性恋问题的场所。
What I'd like to remind you is this.This is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs press conference and not a forum for the discussion of gay issues. more ›