Fridae

Hong Kong to get first ever gay radio talk-show
Radio Television Hong Kong (www.rthk.org.hk), a public broadcaster, will launch a new weekly radio talk-show to focus on gay and lesbian issues this weekend.

To be hosted by Brian Leung, the show will be platform for guests to share their views on life among people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender and will cover lifestyle news including music, films and fashion.

Leung, an openly gay radio personality who was interviewed by Fridae in 2001, is also the founder of Gaystation (gaystation.com.hk), a gay radio service that was set up in 2000 to provide livestreaming Cantonese programmes on the web.

Leung said: "The purpose of the programme is to set up a platform for gays and lesbians to share their views with the community.

"We do not intend to make the programme confrontational and we don't expect people to accept different sexual orientations overnight. People should just listen to our programme first."

The programme, We Are Family, will be aired on Saturdays between midnight and 2am on RTHK's Radio 2 and Putonghua (Mandarin) channels.

The programme has met with opposition from the Society for Truth and Light, a Christian group which has been outspoken against homosexuality as well as various governmental initiatives which aim to grant gays and lesbians equal rights.

Choi Chi-sum, general secretary of the Society for Truth and Light, said the programme should not be used to promote homosexuality or an acceptance of gay culture.

"It is all right to let people better understand gays and lesbians, but the programme should not be used to impose its values and influence people to accept homosexuality as proper and normal," he said.

Legislator Sin Chung-kai, chairman of the Legislative Council's information, technology and broadcasting panel, said in an interview that he supported the programme, which he believed would provide a bridge for people of different sexual orientations.

Recently, the Hong Kong SAR Government announced its decision to bar British nationals who live in the territory from entering into same-sex civil partnerships at the British consulate although it is legal under British law.

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A gay and lesbian party in Moscow was cancelled at the last minute as protesters threw eggs, bottles, stones and abuse at partygoers outside the nightclub on Sunday night.

Billed as a unique mass gathering of gay Russians, organisers had hoped to attract over a thousand people to the "Open Party" at the Renaissance Event Club in the south of Moscow.

The unlikely alliance of protesters comprising skinheads and Russian Orthodox Christians picketed the club shouting homophobic insults while the Christian groups chanted "God is with us."

An Agence France-Presse report said one clubgoer was rescued from attackers by police.

GayRussia (gayrussia.ru) has dubbed the incident the "worst homophobic protests of nationalists and religious extremists in Russian history."

For two nights in a row, protesters targeted gay and lesbian clubs. On Monday night, a crowd of 40 to 150 protesters - with estimates varying with their sources - gathered outside Tri Obezyany, one of the city's oldest gay clubs.

According to various media reports, riot police were forced to intervene when at least 100 skinheads, fascists nationalists and elderly Christian fundamentalists - many of them elderly women - clutching Orthodox icons descended on the club and tried to prevent people entering the club. The club however managed to stay open.

Some 39 people were arrested and charged with minor public order offences.

According to The Moscow Times citing reports by gay web sites, an art gallery near the Proletarskaya metro station that had hosted lesbian-themed cultural events was burned down Sunday night.

The incidents come weeks before Moscow authorities are due to rule on allowing the city's first Gay Pride parade. A leading gay rights activist said the rallies were the result of homophobic remarks by the city government and religious leaders.

The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) has called on the European Union to put what pressure it can on President Putin to "call a halt to this escalating persecution."

"It is now clear that the combination of the Orthodox Church and the right-wing government is resulting in the targeting and scapegoating of gay people. We have asked the Russian Ambassador in London to convey our protest to the Russian Government, although we have little hope that the situation is going to change in the near future.

"In Russia, gays are becoming the new Jews, the minority it is acceptable to attack and despise. The authorities are lending weight to the onslaught by making inflammatory statements and banning gay events, such as Moscow Gay Pride," GALHA said in a letter.

Nikolai Alexeyev, one of the chief organisers of the Moscow Gay Pride and head of the GayRussia web site, noted that the protest had caught the city authorities unaware, coming on the eve of the May Day holiday. It was, he said, a "mass, coordinated action aimed at intimidating Russian gays and lesbians."

Alexeyev said that organisers are determined to hold its first ever public gay pride march scheduled for May 27.

"We plan to hold our procession on Saturday, May 27, roughly at 3pm, right after the end of a conference to mark the International Day Against Homophobia, which will take place at Moscow's Swissotel," Alexeyev said on the Gay Russia web site.

Organisers will file an application for a parade on May 15, despite the fact that Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov said earlier that he would not allow such an event in the city - citing public disorder issues the march might provoke.