Fridae

Following a tip-off, the police raided a gay party held in a bungalow in northern Mumbai early on Sunday and detained 133 people – including several celebrities – on the charge of indecent behaviour, two party organisers for not having the requisite liquor licence, and the DJ for not having the licence to play music beyond permissible hours.

The 5th Beijing Queer Film Festival was held from June 15-19 at different locations after the festival, which was scheduled to take place at an undisclosed location in the capital's Xicheng District, was forced to be cancelled.

Prominent gay rights activists, Americans Dan Choi and Andy Thayer, and France's Louis-George Tin, were among the dozens arrested for trying to hold two unauthorized gay-rights demonstrations in the Russian capital on Saturday.

The Hong Police interfered in last Sunday’s International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) rally, cutting the programme short. Police say the organisers were not in possession of a permit for the dance performances but organisers say other similar events didn't require one. Raymond Ko reports.

Although a local newspaper reported that Huangpu police acted after receiving complaints that the bar was staging sex shows, the claim has been vehemently refuted by everyone present on the day, according to the Shanghaiist blog.

Police say they were investigating the bar for staging "sex shows"; bar's DJ says he believes the raid to be the result of fierce competition among local bars.

Police in Shanghai on Sunday raided and detained at least 50 patrons of a new gay bar on the Bund. Kenneth Tan reports from Shanghai, China.

The Atlanta City Council unanimously voted to pay US$1 million to settle a lawsuit filed by patrons of a gay bar that was raided by police who claimed their civil rights were violated when dozens of officers subjected them to excessive force and homophobic abuse during the raid last year.

Different spaces and even a different context of the use of the spaces have different behavioural conventions inscribed on them, and people have generally come to respect the prevailing convention. Should the police leave cruising grounds alone if the unwitting public is very unlikely to stumble on any activity?

Prominent Singapore blogger and gay activist Alex Au notes that the police is back to entrapping gay cruisers after not having done so in 16 years, and explains how the police decoy in such instances could be said to have given consent (even if non-verbal) to be approached.