The daytime talk show Ellen will take to the airwaves in southeast Asia on Lifetime Asia in same-day telecasts as episodes in the United States, according to Variety. The Ellen DeGeneres Show will premiere weekdays on Lifetime at 8 p.m. Hong Kong and Singapore time. It will be available in Brunei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Thailand and The Philippines.
World OutGames Miami has launched a global crowdfunding campaign in anticipation of the sports, human rights and cultural event taking place in Miami and Miami Beach May 26-June 4, 2017, according to a press release. Revenue from the crowdfunding campaign will go toward establishing the World OutGames Miami Outreach Fund, which provides financial assistance to global participants who may otherwise not have the financial resources to attend the Games. See twistedmalemag.com/world-outgames-miami-announces-325000-in-grants-donations/ .
Emphasizing its character as "an open city that respects the universal values of openness, sharing and freedom," Paris recently officially launched preparations to host the 10th Gay Games in 2018, Forbes noted. Started in 1982 as the Gay Olympics, the games—which include not only sporting but also cultural events—occur every four years and gather more than 15,000 participants from around the world who compete in as many as 36 sports. The 2018 games, on Aug. 4-12, will include two big cultural events each day, a conference program, and a variety of musical and arts shows.
A new organization—the first in Turkey to ensure LGBTI websites, groups and organizations—has been established to fight homophobia and transphobia in the Islamic country that straddles Europe and Asia, according to a press release. Burcin Bordanaci of the Turkey LGBTI Union said, "Because Turkey is a Islamic country although not in the same league as Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iraq in its vehemently anti-LGBTI stance, there is still need for togetherness and solidarity among LGBTI groups to counter homophobia and transphobia that exists in Turkey." Same-sex relations have been legal in Turkey since 1858, but the law does not include sexual orientation or gender identity within its legal- or civil-rights structure.
Burberry's Christopher Bailey—the first openly gay CEO of a FTSE 100 company—has come top in a new report ranking the world's top LGBT business leaders, according to CNBC. Other top-10 names on the list—which was compiled by OUTstanding, a networking group for LGBT executives—included HSBC U.K. CEO Antonio Simoes; Nike Global Chief Information Officer Anthony Watson; and Alex Schultz, Facebook's vice-president for growth. OUTstanding also compiled a list of the top 20 "straight allies" that includes Virgin's Richard Branson and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
A British man jailed in Morocco for same-sex acts said the cells he was in for 20 days were "hell on Earth," the UK Mirror reported. Retired publisher Ray Cole, 69, was arrested in a park in Marrakech last month with his 22-year-old lover, Jamal Wald Nass. Speaking for the first time since arriving back in the UK, Cole said they were driven to their rented flat, which police "trashed." The pair were kept in cells until they were found guilty on Oct. 2 and jailed for four months; however, they were both freed within a week.
Roman Catholic bishops have reversed a historic acceptance of gays, dropping parts of a controversial document that had talked more positively of homosexuals than ever before in Church history, according to The Chicago Tribune. The document, issued at the end of a two-week assembly, or synod, of some 200 Roman Catholic bishops from around the world, pointed to deep divisions within the Church on issues such as reaching out to the gay community, and Catholics who have divorced and remarried in civil services.
A 2015 calendar featuring nude and semi-nude "priests" is campaigning against homophobia in the Orthodox Church, according to Gay Star News. As the Catholic Church retracted its historic statements of support for the LGBTI community worldwide, some members of the Orthodox Church want to tackle gay hate in a "bold," "humorous" and "ironic" way. The 2015 calendar is named "S.A.L.I.G.I.A."—an Italian acronym for wrath, avarice, sloth, pride, lust, envy and gluttony ( the seven deadly sins ). The 2015 Orthodox Calendar is available in classic and explicit versions.
The marriage-equality debate arrived within walking distance of the Vatican as Rome's mayor defied Italy's government and registered 16 same-sex marriages celebrated abroad, The New Zealand Herald reported. Gay marriage is illegal in Italy. Interior Minister Angelino Alfano recently sent a notice to local prefects saying any registrations of foreign gay marriages would be voided, and Rome's prefect vowed to do so immediately. Nevertheless, Mayor Ignazio Marino received thunderous applause upon arrival at the city hall reception room where the couples and their loved ones gathered to make the marriages official in Rome's city ledger.
An Indian television news station has recruited the country's first transgender news anchor, five months after a court ruled that transgender people be recognized as a legal third gender, according to Reuters. Padmini Prakash, 31, who works at Lotus News in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, told the Times of India that she had faced a lot of discrimination throughout her life, including being disowned by her family. India was not the first Asian country to give legal recognition to the transgender community; Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh have also legally recognized a third gender.
A 20-year-old gay man is dead after being thrown through a third-story window during a quarrel with his 60-year-old partner in the Indian city of Hyderabad, Gay Star News reported. The still unidentified 20-year-old was naked and when police entered the building they discovered V. Narsingh Rao in an office belonging to his lawyer. Rao, a former deputy director of the industries department, was also naked; he later said he is bisexual and that he threw his lover out the window during an argument. Police have charged Rao with murder and also under India's notorious colonial era Section 377 anti-sodomy law for "unnatural sex."
A former teacher who groomed a schoolboy 26 years his junior after they met on gay hook-up app Grindr has been jailed for five years, The Daily Mail reported. Gary Pearce, 40, messaged and swapped naked photographs with the 14-year-old on the Grindr app over several weeks before arranging a meeting for sex. The boy's mother discovered messages on her son's cellphone and confronted him before calling the police.
A Thai song about a transgender woman has a video on YouTube. The song, at www.youtube.com/watch, has the title "The ( trans girl ) Who'll Never Be Unfaithful," Thailand Gay Travel tweeted.
In Australia, commentator Mia Freedman has apologized for comparing gays and lesbians to pedophiles, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Freedman was criticized on social media after she asked on television, "We accept that gay people can't change who they love and who they're sexually attracted to, so why do we think that people who are sexually attracted to children can be rehabilitated?" Freedman, who is a regular guest on the show, issued an apology online, saying it was a "clumsily worded point."
A Kazakh court has upheld a fine imposed an advertising agency over a controversial gay club poster, Gay Star News noted. The poster shows Kazakh composer Kurmangazy Sagyrbayuly kissing Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. A court in Almaty recently found Havas Worldwide Kazakhstan guilty of "advertising goods and services banned in Kazakhstan," and fined the company and director 314,000 tenge ( $1,700 ).
An anti-gay youth group stopped boy band Kazaky performing in Kyrgyzstan in order to defend "traditional values," Gay Star News reported. About 300 members of Kalys blocked the entrance to Guns 'n' Roses nightclub in Bishkek, where the Ukrainian four-piece band Kazaky was due to perform. None of the current members is gay, but the members perform shirtless and in stilettos.
The U.S. artist who placed an inflatable sculpture resembling a giant anal plug in a posh Paris square is not going to try again after saboteurs attacked it, RFI.fr reported. Paul McCarthy, 69, said he wanted to avoid confrontation and physical violence. The work, an almost-80-foot-high green inflatable entitled "Tree" is a visual pun on a perceived similarity between a Christmas tree and the sex toy often referred to as a "butt plug," and was to stand in the Place Vendome during Paris's annual art fair, Fiac.
