Fridae

Gay advocacy group People Like Us calls for entries for the second Rascals Prize competition, a S$2,000 biennial award for the best piece of research on the subject of lesbians, gays, bi-sexuals and transgender (LGBT) and Singapore.

Ahead of the biennial 2009 Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit to be held Nov 27-29, representatives of gay groups from ten countries including Singapore, Malaysia and India are attending a parallel conference called the Commonwealth People's Forum with the aim of campaigning for the repeal of sodomy laws - a very common feature of ex-British colonies. Alex Au writes from Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago.

Siew Kum Hong, a former Nominated Member of Parliament who came under fire for presenting a petition which sought to repeal the law that criminalises gay sex in Parliament in 2007, tells Fridae about what winning the second Dignity Prize means to him.