The first Chinese Gay pageant that was to be held yesterday was cancelled by the Beijing police on the ground that the organisers had not applied “according to the procedures”. Today, the dedicated page on the website of the one of the organisers leads to a Chinese “page not found”.
To avoid “unnecessary difficulty” the organisers wanted the event to have a low-profile locally and focussed reaching out to the international media and local bloggers given the “complicated situation” and the “possibility of increased scrutiny from the authorities”. But the announcement …

The idea of a pageant as a means to improve acceptance of homosexuality made me wince ever so slightly.
“The event is a striking sign of how far attitudes in China have changed and of gay people’s increasing confidence” wrote Tania Branigan in The Guardian. And so, eight  “brave” contestants will tread the catwalk in a show of physical beauty but also character and personality “that will make a difference in the selection” according to Beijing-based Ryan Dutcher, co-founder & Communications Director of Gayographic, and organiser of the event.
But after reflexion, …

Courtesy of The New York Times. Interestingly, some States require that one of the spouses is not able to have children, echoing the dark day of eugenism and the case of Cary Buck.

Rating 3.00 out of 5

IRIN/PlusNews has compiled a short list of the ways people refer to HIV/AIDS on the African continent.
Angola (Portuguese)
Pisar na mina – Contracting HIV is like having “stepped on a landmine”
Bichinho – “Little bug” (the virus)
Botswana (SeTswana)
Phamo kate – phamo “a quick snatch”, and kate “buried” (refers to AIDS)
Onale jwa radio – “He/she has the disease talked about on the radio” (radio is the primary method of disseminating HIV/AIDS knowledge)
Bolwestse jo booleng – “The illness that has befallen [us]” (euphemism for HIV and AIDS as a new illness)
Segajaja – meaning …

In an article posted on LifeLube, Charles Stephens wonders what oral prevention and rectal microbicides, amongst others, might mean for HIV prevention and pleasure, risk and taboo.
As “condom-centric” prevention interventions are failing (the intervention, not the condom), hope and expectations are high that other prevention strategies such as PrEP and microbicides could succeed where condoms are failing. However, discussion and debate are rife around these interventions and they are important because we need to think ahead about how they will affect our sexual behaviour.
The problem is “how” to think these …