Fridae

The first Beijing Gay & Lesbian Culture Festival will take place from Dec 16-18 in the Chinese capital with a series of programmes including retrospective exhibitions of TV, magazines, newspapers archives, and materials about gay culture and gay life.

China's media has long tiptoed around the issue of gays and lesbians. But over the last few months, mainland journalists have been turning their attention to queers, and, for the first time, putting forward the idea that it's ok to be gay. Beijing-based Dinah Gardner has more.

According to the latest survey of 300 lesbians in Beijing, only 21.8 percent said they would come out to their parents, and almost half said they had considered suicide while 16.5 per cent had attempted it.

"Don't panic, I am Islamic," read one of her flyers. Fridae speaks to DJ Ipek, who performed her first gig in Berlin sheathed in a Burka, on coming out to her family and getting into DJing. She's scheduled to play at Shanghai's Home&Bar this weekend.

More gays and lesbians will find themselves cut off from important HIV and other resources as China blocks it's largest gay resource site - without an official reason. Beijing-based Dinah Gardner tracks down site manager Damien Lu and prominent AIDS activist Dr Wan Yanhai to find out more.

Fridae tracks down Yang Yang, the organiser of the second Beijing International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, to be held this weekend and finds out the difficulties of organising a gay festival in the Chinese capital in an exclusive interview.

Rice Rhapsody will open in Taipei and Singapore this week after the Singapore Censorship Board deliberated for more than a month over the film's gay theme. Fridae speaks with veteran actress Sylvia Chang and writer/director Kenny Bi to find out why he choose to set the film in Singapore.

One of the first lesbian celebrities to come out, Canadian singer k.d. lang is currently on an Asian tour with pit stops in Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo as well as in Australia and New Zealand in February.

Fridae brings you a rundown of what's showing at the 16th annual Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival which runs from Nov 25 - Dec 5. Dinah Gardner reports from Hong Kong.