Fridae

Asia's first lesbian event in Phuket, Nov 4-6
Organised by women's groups in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur including party organisers Girl Gungho, and social groups DbOleh, Les Malaysia, KRYSS, WWLW, Soul Sisterz, the 3-day event is a collaborative effort between Fridae and other women's groups around the world.

The event will include a film festival, dance party, pool parties, readings of original works and singers-songwriters sessions by and for women. Attendees will be thronging the Phuket Grand Tropicana Patong where the majority of the events will be held though Shine, the dance party, will be held at a club in Patong on the first night.

The Girl Pride Asia festival pass will also include admission to the Nation.V party headlined by American circuit favourite, DJ Manny Lehman and Australia's First Lady Of House, Kate Monroe, on 5 November.

For partygoers who can't wait to party with the rest of the attendees, organisers have chartered a "partybus" which departs Kuala Lumpur on 3 November and arrives at the Grand Tropicana on 4 November. A 2-way "partybus" ticket costs MYR150 and bookings can be made on www.girlprideasia.com.

The 3-day Girl Pride Asia pass is available online at www.girlprideasia.com for MYR380, USD100 or BHT3, 800. Passes can also be purchased at the reception at Phuket Grand Tropicana Hotel Patong from Nov 2-5. Open 10am-5pm.

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Britain's Warwick says no to setting up Singapore campus
Plans for Singapore to be home to Britain's Warwick University's branch campus have fallen through as senior lecturers voted by 27 to 13 last week not to proceed with the �294 million (US$516 million) project.

The university's 33-member council, who are mostly external to the University, voted against the decision yesterday after the overwhelming although non-binding rebuff from academics last week.

Warwick's senate, which comprises academic staff and several students, not only questioned the financial viability of the project and the university's ability to attract quality students and staff to the Singapore campus but also highlighted the city-state's limits on academic freedom and civil liberties, including curbs on gay rights.

In a series of last minute negotiations, Vice-Chancellor David VandeLinde, a champion of the project, had attempted to achieve further concessions from the Singapore Economic Development Board which has been tasked with selecting foreign universities to set up a full-scale campuses. Warwick would have been the second after Australia's University of New South Wales to set up in Singapore.

According to the Boar claiming to have obtained a confidential letter from the Vice-Chancellor to senior Singaporean officials, Warwick had asked for guarantees that "its campus in Singapore should enjoy the same degree of academic freedom as its campus in the UK."

The letter also asked for the sole authority to decide to allow students to "establish religious or gay/lesbian societies on campus, organise gatherings to advocate reform of the death penalty in Singapore, invite speakers of varying political persuasions to address staff and students on campus, publish student newspapers and weblogs and broadcast student radio services on campus."

One unnamed Senate member, however, described the response to this letter from Singapore as "a lot of nothingness," reported the Warwick Boar, the campus paper.

Another academic commented, "It's quite revealing in itself, because we've known that we were going to have problems of this kind for about 18 months, and it's only a week ago that we sent them a letter about it."

Meanwhile, Singapore's pioneer gay activist Alex Au met with Warwick University's Richard Watson who was in Singapore to compile a report about political and academic freedom as part of the feasibility report. In his personal site, Au highlighted that although there would be no difficulty for gay and lesbian students and staff in getting visas, a gay staffmember might find it difficult to get his or her same-sex partner a long-term residency visa.

Au also wrote that Watson and his team were aware that the Singapore government has refused to register People Like Us and Warwick's Singapore students might find themselves in a bind should they try to form a gay and lesbian students society.

According to an announcement on the University's web site, Warwick will "continue discussions within the academic community and with the EDB with a view to bringing forward an alternative plan for academic development in Singapore which could command the support of the Senate and the Council."

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Activists slam HK Chief Executive's comments on recent gay sex ruling
Gay rights activists in Hong Kong criticised its Chief Executive after he warned against the "privatisation" of morality at a gathering of more than 1,000 young people last Saturday.

Hong Kong's Chief Executive, Donald Tsang.

Responding to a question on a High Court ruling which overturned a law criminalising homosexual acts between men under 21, Hong Kong's leader, Donald Tsang said, "I believe the privatisation of morals has become a danger in society... A moral is a value shared by the entire society."

Gay sex was illegal in Hong Kong until 1991.

Tsang said young people needed protection, and "it is a bit too much" for youngsters of 16 to be involved in gay sex, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

Last month, the High Court ruled the law discriminated against gay men because the legal age for consensual gay sex, 21, was higher than the age for heterosexual sex, which is 16. The government has since appealed the ruling.

The SCMP report quoted Victor Chau, the editor of G Magazine, as saying that the chief executive's comments were inappropriate at a time when the legal battle was still going on. He added that everyone should be treated equally before law, and be granted protection even if they were morally deviant as everyone has differing moral values.

Vice president of the Hong Kong Ten Percent Club Joseph Cho added, "Laws should not interfere in actions which are not harmful to other people� Mr. Tsang, and many other people, use moral values as an excuse, but moral values change over time."

Earlier this month, gay activists criticised the Hong Kong government for awarding a contract to the anti-gay Christian group Society for Truth and Light to educate primary and secondary schoolteachers on human rights and anti-discrimination issues. The course will include the history of human rights, international conventions on human rights, and the history of human rights activism and legislation in Hong Kong.

The Society For Truth and Light has lobbied the government against legislation outlawing discrimination toward lesbians and gay men and described homosexuals as "unhealthy and dangerous to society" in newspaper advertisements.

"Choosing a group that is not only anti-gay, but clearly anti-human rights, over experienced academics to teach human rights is simply a joke," said Chairman of Civil Rights for Sexual Diversities, Roddy Shaw, who staged a 48-hour hunger strike with several other human rights activists outside Hong Kong's government offices to protest the decision.

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