Kathmandu (Pahichan) February 28 – We are going to present the key headlines of the news related to LGBI publsied in ILGA Asia Monthly Newsletter.

Marriage Equality

Taiwan Cabinet released momentous bill to legalize same-sex marriage. Constitutional law experts in Taiwan have warned the government and parliament must enact equal marriage or risk ‘political catastrophe’.

The LGBT couples in Japan  filing suits on February 14 in at least four cities, including Tokyo, claiming the government is violating their constitutional rights. The Mainichi Shimbun sought the opinions of three experts on what should Japan’s next step on same-sex marriage be.

A Japanese lesbian couple plans to sue in a nationwide campaign to seek recognition of same-sex marriages.

Chiba becomes first Japanese city to issue certificates for same-sex couples.

349 couples have registered for ‘partnership certificates’ in Japan.

Gay couples to ‘live more freely‘ with Thai civil unions.

Gay couple, 51 years apart in age, wed in Taiwan.

A third of Singaporeans support same-sex civil partnership according to a poll.

After gender change, there’s a bureaucratic brick wall in Japan.

Politics

• A trans mayor in India recorded herself dancing to Bollywood bops and transphobes aren’t happy.
• Amid data breach, Singapore politician spoke out for people living with HIV.
• Thai party candidate aims to be first transgender Prime Minister.
• Veena Sendra, a trans beauty queen became a politician in India.
• The conservative politician fighting for gay rights in Japan.
• Taiwan’s non-binary politician named one of world’s top 100 thinkers.
• Hong Kong’s only openly gay politician celebrated Taiwan on becoming the first Asian country to table a same-sex marriage bill to parliament.

HIV/AIDS

• Confidential data about more than 14,000 people diagnosed with HIV has been stolen in Singapore and leaked online. And Singapore Health Minister finally spoke out about HIV data breach.
• Government officials in Indonesia have stepped in to defend a HIV and AIDS support group.
• India takes ‘big step‘ in HIV/AIDS fight with gay sex ruling.

Culture

• Pioneering Bollywood lesbian romance opens in India. India’s LGBT community hail Bollywood lesbian romance as a milestone in country’s filmmaking.
• Despite there being only one openly gay idol, many LGBTQ+ people find solace and joy in a K-POP industry that’s notoriously conservative.
• Creator of Asia’s ‘LGBTI Netflix’, GagaOOLala, won award. And plansto expand this year into India in 2019
• Hong Kong Humans – LGBT+ choir The Harmonics offers a positive voice for equality.
• Singapore’s first online gay drama returned for a second season this week.
• Indonesia threatened to block ‘naughty’ Instagram over gay comic. Whydid Indonesia pressure Instragam to remove the comic strip depicting the struggles of gay characters?
• How a Hong Kong couple found love through art – and zombies.
• Video of gay couple accepted by their family in Singapore went viral.
• Chinese broadcaster censored Rami Malek Oscars speech, a reference to homosexuality.
• Drag Race Thailand season 1 winner announced she’s running for Congress.
• The Nüshu Workshop is defying rigid social restrictions and driving awareness for underrepresented female and LGBTQI DJs and producers in the music industry of China.

Legislation

• Transgender trio fail in legal bid to be listed as male on Hong Kong ID card. Life as a transgender person can be difficult in Hong Kong.
• A man has had charges of ‘unnatural offences’ against him dropped, making him the first acquitted of the law since India decriminalized homosexuality.
• Anti-LGBT hysteria in Indonesia delays sexual violence bill.
• Full sex change for transgenders seeking Hong Kong ID validation goes against human rights.
• The struggle against Section 377 Myanmar Penal Code: A viewpoint from India.
• LGBT ban lawful, said Indonesia’s human rights commission

Discrimination/Attack

• Man arrested in Delhi accused of shooting trans woman in stomach.
• A religious leader in Malaysia urged the country’s Muslims to treat trans women as males in a Facebook post.
• Singaporean gay couple cyberbullied after a photo of them kissing circulates online.
• Many gay and trans Indians are avoiding doctors’ visits altogether out of a fear of discrimination.
• Public opinion and colonial-era laws prevent some members of Singapore’s LGBT community from broadcasting their sexuality.
• Sexual minority college students in Japan find interviews can be grueling.
• Lebanese security forces have repeatedly interfered with LGBT events in violation of international human rights protections.
• ‘They would smash your head to death’: escaping homophobia in the Middle East.
• Malaysian school apologized after conversion therapy printed in yearbook.
• There were no arrests days after gruesome murder of trans priest in India and the police arrested two over beheading of trans priest.
• Man faces deportation to Malaysia after UK officials refuse to believe he is gay.
• Indonesian women arrested for saying President will legalize equal marriage.
• Facing death threats, India lesbian woman seeks police protection from parents.
• Homophobia and rising Islamic intolerance push Indonesia’s intersex bissu priests to the brink.

Movement

• The LGBT+ community in Myanmar has celebrated Pride with a boat parade for the first time. And around 2,000 people attended Yangon Pride, the second time the festival has been held in public.
• Mumbai had its first Pride parade since India decriminalized homosexuality.
• Chiang Mai Pride was held after a decade of silence.
• The trans community in Pakistan planned to take to the streets to protest another murder of a trans woman.
• Asian LGBT activists strike at colonial-era attitudes.
• LGBTI flashmob takes India by storm.
• Women’s March in Malaysia to push for LGBTI rights
• A gay parenting “boot camp” will host its first ever event in Asia, next month, March 9-10, in Taipei, Taiwan.

Corporation

• Uber India marked Valentine’s Day with push for rainbow heart emoji.
• Samsung featured pregnant lesbian couple in amazing new advert.
• Gay sex ruling brings India’s ‘pink economy’ out of the closet. On the other hand, small, rural businesses in India are far behind India’s corporate giants in welcoming LGBT+ people.
• In India, employer decided to pay for ‘life-changing’ surgery.

Education

• Pakistan opens first public school for transgender persons in Lodhran.
• A social media post slamming LGBTI-inclusive textbooks in China went viral.
• Gender-free uniforms at schools? Yes, it’s happening in Japan.

More News

• Portion of S. Koreans opposed to homosexuality dips below 50 pct for the first time.
• The Hong Kong government launched a major program to teach the community about sexual minorities.
• Sexual minorities in Central Asia live under significant pressure.
• Gay heartthrob and LGBTI flag-bearer, Sushant Divgikar, walked hand-in-hand with his father as his drag alter ego at Mumbai pride.
• Village in Cambodia where ‘love the same’ is embraced.
• After Supreme Court’s ruling, psychologists in India are combatingIndian heterosexism.
• Japan launches first LGBTI safe house.
• A gay Malaysian man faces the threat of deportation from the UK after his final appeal was rejected last week.
• Condom fashion show promotes safer sex in India.
• Buddhism tries to reach out to LGBTs until the very end in Japan.
• The vocabulary for discussing LGBT topics grows in Japan and India.

• Manisha Dhakal, Co-chair of ILGA ASIA’s Executive Board, talkedabout challenges that LGBTI movement in Nepal is facing in the video from Salzburg Global LGBT Forum.
• Gopi Shankar Madurai, Intersex Representative of ILGA ASIA’s Executive Board participates in webinar series by Pride Circle and talks about “The Intersex in LGBTI: Awareness & inclusion”.
• ILGA World Conference will be held from 18-22 March 2019 in Wellington, New Zealand. Staffs and some of our Executive Board will be there. See you at the conference

Source: Rainbow news