Weekly Mix Masala

Pune sees its first gay play-- Offbeat
Times of India

A look at the Highs (and Lows) of 2008 for South Asia
Global Voices

Forum on Islam and Homosexuality brings heated discussions from both sides of the table.
Beliefnet.com

As much as we at queeristan love NDTV for it's queer-friendly programming, it's facing heat in the Indian blogging community for infringing on free speech
Desi Pundit

Delhi woman demands alimony from gay ex-husband
Times of India

India not alone in suffering from dated Victorian "morality"
PinkNews

Trials begin in Punjab on possible HIV viral filter
Deccan Herald

15 South Asian NGOs unite to seek acceptance for sexual minorities.
Times of India

GLAAD publishes Media Reference Guide, 7th edition
GLAAD.org

La Mala Educación

Sometimes just because someone goes to college (or runs a university) doesn't always mean they are educated. Officials at Chennai's well-known PSNA College of Technology have fired four members of their kitchen staff for being HIV positive. Three men and one woman have been sacked from their hostel positions after they were tested for the virus. To add insult to injury, the discriminatory decision was made right before the South Indian festival of Pongal.

For a science-orientated school, PSNA's management sure ignores the wealth of research on serotransmission. When retold that HIV cannot be passed through food, college official S. Ramkrishnan ignored the facts stating that, "[they] cannot take the risk of having HIV positive cooks working in the college mess." Seeing how concerned Ramkrishnan is of the health of his students, I hope his cooks are routinely checked for influenza, jaundice, and you know, any other disease that actually spreads through food.

And of course, the staff fired are all socially and economically disadvantaged -- prime meat for upper class manipulation. But don't lose all hope, HIV/AIDS rights lawyer Anand Grover has spoken out about the case. Grover points out that, "Mumbai and Delhi high courts have ruled that a person living with HIV could not be denied opportunity of employment." I hope he takes the case -- anyone else channeling Denzel Washington circa Philadelphia?

Weekly Mix Masala

Sunil Babu Pant, from Nepal, addresses the UN on LGBT issues.
Gays Without Borders

This guy is on fire! Pant also received a "People of the Year Award" from The Advocate magazine!
Advocate.com

Nepal - one step forward, two steps back. Journalist Uma Singh, one of many journalists targeted in Nepal, is hacked to death by 12 to 20 men. One issue Uma covered was women's rights.
SAJA Forum

The Star Screen Awards were very... pseudo-gay this year! Priyanka Chopra wins the Best Actress award for Fashion and Jon Abraham and Abishek Bachchan win the best couple award for Dostana.
Screen India

Which Bollywood stars have Hollywood look-a-likes? These pairings are amazing!!
Ultrabrown

Queer Masti: Bi-sexual Prejudice - Bi Ladki talks about the lack of understanding towards bi-sexuals.
Desiclub.com

Court rules that Bangladeshi trans-persons are full-fledged citizen and are allowed to vote for the first time ever!
Globalgayz.com

What are the HIV related needs of sexual minorities in India? Download the document here:
msmasia.org

Cop torches wife to death in Nagpur, India
Times of India

Weekly Mix Masala

An HIV-positive woman from Pakistan has been shunned by her in-laws who have taken away her children. She contracted HIV from her husband, now deceased, who was a drug addict.
The News

Gay Penguins! Need I say more?
Telegraph

Over 200 condom vending machines to be installed in Lucknow, India
The Times of India

Across the border love - a Pakistani student created a website to find more gay men has fallen in love with a man in India he met through the internet. Frustratingly, the article doesn't link to his website, but I think we found it. Hit us up - we're "Queer Desi." The site ripped off facebook (hey, all's fair in love...), and the only statement in it's Terms & Services is "Be decent and nice."
NDTV.com

Despite Prop 8, GLAAD has released a poll that shows a majority of US Adults favor legal protections the LGBT community. Unsuprisingly, the poll shows that those under 65, and especially people 18-34, are more supportive of LGBT rights.
GLAAD

Everybody and their mother is in this skit against Prop 8, but all I see is Margaret Cho
Funny or Die

The Maldives is, uhh, sinking...
CNN

Cyprus grants resident status to gay Iranian asylum seeker
Pink News

Weekly Mix Masala

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Terrorist Attacks on Mumbai
||26.11.08 - 29.11.08||
Summary of Attacks -- Wikipedia
Sequence of Events -- BBC News
Recent Developments -- NYTimes
Wear White on 12/1 in Solidarity -- Facebook Event
================================================


Gays in India fear rules, blackmailers
The Washington Post

AIDS Sutra released this week, watch readings via webcast
SAJAforum

Dostana is (still) shaking up Bollywood
Bollywood films enter brave, gay world
Straight.com

Dostana in Pakistan
Pakistan Paindabad

John Abraham asks men to step it up
XPress


More Bollywood Gay News
Amisha Patel defends boyfriend's sexuality -- and no one cares
Bollywood News Blog

Konkona Sen Sharma jumps on the rainbow bandwagon
India Forums


Prop 8 News
Minorities fear trend from CA gay marriage ban
Reuters

A queer desi reaches out to LGBT Mormons
2015Place.com


Something Inspiring
All-girl rock band shakes Saudi Arabian establishment
NYTimes
Accolade's MySpace

Weekly Mix Masala

More Reviews of A Jihad for Love
Arab American News
Bay Area Reporter
San Fransico Bay Times

Behind the veil lives a thriving Muslim sexuality
Sydney Morning Herald

Victims blame Nepali PM for floods
SindhToday.net

HIV positive Indian boy wishes to be sent back to Pakistani jail
Pakistan Daily
The News

Gay and Democracy- how queers are becoming more involved in politics.
Times of India

Carriers of HIV ignored in India
NDTV

Activists want British apology for IPC 377
The Independent

Essay on homosexuality in India
CounterCurrents.org

Health Minister Ramadoss champions gay rights
Sahara Samay

How to combat distance in fighting India's war against HIV/AIDS
Reuters India

UAE contradicts itself in terms of lifestyle
International Herald Tribune

Sanjaya, from American Idol, returns!

Underground Social Justice (...literally)

A few weeks ago we told you about the publication of an awesome compilation of stories dealing with those living with HIV/AIDS in India. Well, the same people releasing AIDS Sutra are sponsoring a 15-day photography exhibition in Delhi's Rajiv Chowk Metro Station. Avahan, an NGO sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, hopes the public will absorb the works and begin questioning the stigma attached to this disease. The photos are actually taken from AIDS Sutra, they illustrate each of the sixteen chapters in the compilation. The works have been enlarged and captioned, they highlight sex workers, hijras, IV drug users, MSMs, and other groups considered at high risk for HIV.

The exhibit was opened by Indian Health Minister and Anti-IPC 377 ally, Ambumani Ramadoss. In recent months, Ramadoss has become increasingly vocal in the people's fight to repeal the British artifactual code criminalizing homosexual behavior. He cites structural issues (like IPC 377) and social stigma as the biggest obstacles India must overcome before the nation's HIV epidemic can be controlled. Rajiv Chowk is India's second largest financial, commercial and business center, thousands of people pass through its metro station daily -- talk about some great exposure!

Positively a Runaway Groom

The pressure of marriage is something many of us will face at some point in our lives. However, Chennai would-be groom, Satish, has dealt with his marital pressure in a rather unique way. Satish was all set to marry the girl chosen out for him by his parents; the couple was engaged and a wedding date was set in early September. However, unknown to the parents or the bride was the fact that this Tamil heart already belonged to someone else. Satish has always been in love with his college sweetheart and a marriage to someone else suddenly felt impossible.

So this South Indian techie used some ingenuity and forged a lab report claiming that he was HIV positive. He presented the evidence to his future in-laws in tears and conveniently wiggled his way out of the predicament. Or so he thought. Something about the story must have seemed specious, because the in-laws called the lab to verify the results and discovered that Satish never even got an HIV test.

Now poor Satish is, as they say, out of the frying pan and into the fire. The bride's family has called and authorities and Satish has been slapped cases under Sections 420 (cheating) and 4 (1) of Prevention of Women Harassment Act. In a last ditch effort he offered to marry the girl once again, but not surprisingly the family turned him down.

Oh Satish, perhaps it's the balance of the universe at work or just rotten luck, but be forewarned runaway grooms (and brides), faking an HIV positive test may not be the best way out of marriage. I'll be surprised if this story doesn't make its way into a Bollywood plot.

Weekly Masala Mix

MUMBAI PRIDE 2008 -- pictures and reviews

The Times of India

Ottawa Citizen

365 Gay

DNA

Boston's MASALA garners attention at their booth during the Independence Day festival!
New England Blade

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funds the world's first condom ringtone in India to promote safer sex
Softpedia
Listen to the ringtone here!

Delhi study finds abused wives at heightened risk for HIV
The Telegraph

NGO launches project Sankalp, an HIV prevention program in Karnataka
Mangalorean.com

Director, Madhur Bhandarkar, tosses around idea of a "Bollywood Brokeback Mountian"
Times of India

India's second candidate for an HIV vaccine reaches a milestone
The Telegraph

My Big Fat Straight Wedding - Andrew Sullivan explains why gay marriage is not really "gay" marriage
The Atlantic

An HIV-positive woman who has never shown symptoms of the virus might provide insights into HIV/AIDS vaccine development!
KaiserNetwork.org

Daivd Gere, brother of Richard Gere, subject of documentary on being a gay family in India
Out In India—A Family's Journey
The Times of India

India launches first HIV health insurance
Only Insurance

Health minister stressed need to scrap Section 377
Indian Express

UK study shows that ethnic minorities with similar sexual behavior show different rates of HIV infection
AIDSmap

Manipur's work to eradicate TB is threatened by the state's rising HIV infections
Panos London

Why India needs more HIV/AIDS awareness:

"An Indian couple who were infected with the virus that can lead to AIDS have committed suicide after killing their three children, police in Mumbai say. Relatives say the couple had been depressed by news that their daughter also had the HIV virus.

Police say the parents hanged themselves after poisoning their children, aged between five and 10. India has one of the largest numbers of HIV-positive people in the world and they suffer serious social stigma."

Indian HIV parents kill children

Weekly Mix Masala

Queeristan would like to wish India and Pakistan very happy 61st birthdays! We hope everyone is enjoying the celebrations all over the world!



Profile of Hanif Kureishi, screenwriter of 1985 queer flick, My Beautiful Laundrette
NY Times

Minister Ramadoss' statement gives gays hope in India
Hindustani Times

Review for A Jihad for Love
Los Angeles Times

HIV and homosexuality in Pakistan research report
AidsPortal

Fellow Queeristani, Naful Khan, comes out!
The Times

A profile of novelist, Manju Kapur
Jabberwock (from August's Elle)

Queeristani Book Club

Queeristanis, be on the look out for an unique anthology of stories based on people living with HIV/AIDS in South Asia. AIDS Sutra is a collaborative product of some of the greatest writers found in the subcontinent. The publication has been funded by Avahan, India's leading AIDS initiative of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Salman Rushdie, Kiran Desi, and Vikram Sheth are only a few of the many contributors to this anthology. Nobel Prize winner and noted social activist, Amartya Sen, has penned the book's foreword. A total of sixteen writers have travelled the across the subcontinent, exploring the impact of HIV/AIDS in countless cross-sections of society. The end-result is no doubt a groundbreaking commentary on the growing situation in South Asia.

AIDS Sutra will be released this fall, look out for it in bookstores in October. And if you are a bit antsy like myself, go ahead and pre-order it at Amazon.com here!

AIDS Awareness

I just watched Saawariya last night and I was looking for the songs on Youtube and I came across this video that was done. The main actor in Saawariya (Ranbir) is featured in the video about raising awareness about AIDS. I think it is awesome that this was created. The efforts of the actors and actresses in "My Brother...Nikhil" was also something that I saw as an accomplishment in the Bollywood advertisements. I just wanted to share it. :)

801 women for every 1000 men ain't so bad...

...for gay gays, that is. In the Gujarat town of Mehsana, the past years of female foeticide are finally catching up. The lack of women in their 20s and 30s is causing gay activity to skyrocket, according to doctors (and male prostitutes) in Ahmedabad who have frequent contact with MSM's (men who have sex with men) from Mehsana. Whether the story is true or false, this activity is being used to explain the increase in HIV/AIDS and other STD's coming from the area.

Sans females, men go gay in Mehsana
Lack of ladies leads to gay love?

Weekly Mix Masala

A British Columbian newspaper publishes article online regarding South Asian queers and their struggles.
The Province

Banker launches blog to give voice to Pakistani gays!
Economic Times

After its historic elections, Nepal still sees no improvement in attitudes towards queers
UK Gay News

Sydney, Australia's first ever GLBT South Asian film festival to take place Aug 15-17!
SX News

160 Organizations Rally to end HIV/AIDS travel ban to the US
The Daily Dish

Archives of Sexual Behavior: A new study on coming out by South Asian gay men in the UK
Ingenta Connect

Indian Council of Medical Research allows gays to use in vitro. How is India so outdated on one hand, and then so progressive on the other?
Times of India

The Gay Wedding Industrial Complex
Jezebel

Meet filmmaker Sonali Gulati - one of the organizers of Delhi's pride parade
Thaindian News

Gurinder Chadha, my feminist hero
Jezebel

Film Review: My Brother...Nikhil (2005)

Inspired by true events, Onir's debut My Brother...Nikhil is an ambitious, deeply emotional film, featuring subtle performances from its ensemble of seasoned actors. In stark contrast to the big-budget spectacles that have come to stereotypically define India's rich cinematic traditions, Nikhil underplays its melodramatic sensibilities to evince some truly heartrending moments.

Set in Goa, from 1987-1994, the film narrates the story of Nikhil Kapoor (Sanjay Suri), champion swimmer and all-round nice guy, who is diagnosed with HIV at the height of his sports career. News of his diagnosis spreads quickly in the community, ultimately leading to his arrest and subsequent imprisonment in an abandoned sanitarium. Nikhil's parents flee Goa in shame, leaving elder sister Anamika (Juhi Chawla) to provide support to her brother, along with Nigel (Purab Kohli), Nikhil's boyfriend.

Given that My Brother...Nikhil centers around issues of HIV/AIDS, gayness, gender bias, and social stigma, the film is sometimes forced to function as an extended public service announcement. For example, the depiction of the legal battles regarding Nikhil's 3-month imprisonment is so underdeveloped it borders on being peripheral. The film works best as a family drama in which parents, children, siblings and partners must come to terms with the ravages of illness and blighted expectations.

Of special mention is the film's narrative style--rather than allowing the film to unfold in a linear fashion (which would have resulted in little more than a two-hour death knell), Onir cleverly uses a docu-drama approach in which each of the principal characters directly addresses the camera, narrating the flashbacks that fill-in Nikhil's story. Though this technique falters a few times, it is surprisingly effective on the whole, especially in terms of character development.

The cast is, without question, the film's biggest strength. Purab Kohli and Lilette Dubey, as Nikhil's boyfriend and mother respectively, are solid. Victor Banerjee is especially fine in the role of Nikhil's father, who must overcome his deep-seeded homophobia in order to reconnect with his son. Juhi Chawla gives a potentially career-best performance as Anamika, Nikhil's sister, confidant and champion. And finally, Sanjay Suri (also serving as producer) turns in a sterling performance as Nikhil. Although often overlooked in mainstream Hindi cinema, Suri proves here that he ranks among the most expressive and dauntless of Indian actors.

Also worth mentioning is the ingenious TV promo-spot (included on the Elite DVD). A range of well-known Bollywood personalities (Karan Johar, Abhishek Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, Mandira Bedi, among others) appear to say, "I care for my brother, Nikhil. Do you?" one after another, after another, until a title card with the film's original release date appears. It's rare to see celebrities promoting projects with which they have no affiliation, especially those that deal with what might be considered "controversial" thematic content.

Recommended.

Weekly Mix Masala

The eighth lesbian suicide in Tamil Nadu as of 2008
merinews

Hey fellow Canadians - we should have covered this earlier for you guys: Sher Vancouver, a Sikh LGBT group
BCLocalNews

In the UK, women win the right to children without fathers
UK Times Online

South Asian parents speak up: "We'd rather you were gay with kids."
Salon.com

And the gay pick for the hottest IPL player is...
Mid-Day

Connecticut Gay & Lesbian Film Festival starting...yesterday! Screening The World Unseen with Lisa Ray & Sheetal Sheth
courant.com

Another gay film festival, this one in Florida and in early June.
TampaBay

The murder trial of Satender Singh, the gay Fijian killed last year in California, wraps up
Hate Crimes Bill

Sigh. Is this just a conservative attack on British Indians or a real case of sex-selection spreading to the UK?
TimesOnline

The Red Ribbon Express, touted as the world’s biggest mass blitz for HIV prevention, enters Tamil Nadu.
The Hindu

Who knew Bhutan was so... penis friendly?

Weekly Mix Masala

Its hard our there for a prince -- an interview with Manvendra Singh Gohil
Out.com

New York Times review of A Jihad for Love
NYTimes

Online Survey: Who's the gay pick for the hottest in the IPL?
Questionnaire

Sizzling Pakistani model, Emmad Irfani, featured on Queerty's 'Morning Goods'
Queerty

Gov't divided over law governing gays -- Naz Foundation's case garners press attention
NDTV

Tragic end for lesbian couple tormented by family pressure
PinkNews
EDGE Boston

UK grants Mehdi Kazemi asylum
CNN
Queerty

South Asian Bar Associaton of Northern California lauds California judgement on marriage
IndiaPost.com

Indian men may claim to have a healthy sex-life, but a new international survey claims that orgasm often eludes them.
NDTV

MAP raises awareness of HIV/AIDS in API community -- a look at being South Asian, gay, and HIV+
Bay Windows

Out in India: A Family's Journey will be showcased at the 2008 SF International Film Festival
Bay Area Reporter

Gambia President announces that gay men and women must leave the country in 24 hours
Gays Without Borders

Props to fellow bloggers pass the roti on the left hand side and Sepiamutiny for their posts on Section 377

One step forward, two steps back...

While the government of Nepal finds itself on the brink of embracing LGBT rights, the recent shut down of a Kathmandu AIDS hospice delivers a substantial blow to such a cause. The hospice was sponsored by the Elton John Foundation and maintained by the Blue Diamond Society, Nepal's growingly popular gay rights organization. The closure is attributed to neighborhood pressure, resulting in the forced eviction of twelve men, four of whom are in the terminal stages of AIDS.

This move further detaches Nepal from facing its growing AIDS epidemic. Thousands of men migrate to larger Indian cities searching for work, there they often visit brothels and contract HIV before returning home only to spread it to their families. This overlap between HIV/AIDS transmission and the cycle of labor is a disturbing pattern seen throughout the developing world. Programs of the Blue Diamond Society, such as this hospice, are only a handful of resources available to Nepal's burgeoning HIV population. This closure only reinforces the divisive issues the nation's new government will have to resolve after the April 10th elections.

Anti-gay bias evicts dying AIDS patients in Nepal

Weekly Mix Masala

Geert Wilders' anti-Islamic film causes panic and anger, prior to airing.
Reuters
BBC

An anonymous writer vents his frustration on being gay in India
Times of India

A homosexual man's guide to Karachi, Pakistan
Pakistan Paindabad

In fact, take a look around the entire blog. Pretty innnteresting
Pakistan Paindabad

Himal's entire March issue explores the state of sexuality in South Asia.
Himal Southasian

Documentary of two young girls set loose at the International AIDS Conference. Forward to 19:54 to see the interview with a hijra, Laxmi Tripathi
EZTakes

Ric Weiland, essential to the launch of Microsoft, left $65 million dollars to LGBT groups. It's reported to be the largest single gift given to the LGBT movement
Washington Blade