NY Visitor from Boston victim of attack, slurs during Gay Pride weekend
A man visiting a friend on the upper East Side was robbed and pistol-whipped during Gay Pride weekend by a group of hoodlums yelling anti-gay slurs, the victim and cops said Sunday.
Joseph Holladay, 36, said he was set upon by at least three men on E. 85th St. about 4 a.m. Saturday.
“Out of nowhere, I’m being attacked,” he said from his bed at New York Presbyterian-Hospital Weill Cornell, a nasty gush visible on his forehead.
One of the robbers called out, “What are you looking at?” and used an anti-gay epithet, the Boston man added.
See Visitor from Boston victim of attack, slurs during Gay Pride weekend
New York Daily News
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Shanghai gay pride: the show goes on
A colourful show of drag queens dressed in Chinese opera costumes was one of the festivities that marked Shanghai’s gay pride on Saturday, the first in China where homosexuality remains largely hidden.
A “Big Bash” barbecue Saturday — billed as the highlight of the week-long festival — went ahead as planned in a bar despite previous last-minute event cancellations by local authorities that marred the “Shanghai Pride.”
Drag and fashion shows and a ‘hot body’ competition took place at Cotton’s bar attended by at least 500 people, in a garden that was hidden from view by a rainbow banner covering the surrounding fence.
Later Saturday night, two fake gay marriages were to take place before people were ferried onto buses to go to an afterparty at a bar on Shanghai’s famous Bund promenade.
“We would have liked the whole week to go without cancellations, but today everything has happened as we wanted it to, so we’re happy,” said Kenneth Tan, spokesman for organisers Shanghai LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender).
Events for “Shanghai Pride” have been organised at private venues without a public parade — in stark contrast to similar events elsewhere in the world — to avoid attracting unwanted official attention.
But still, city authorities forced the cancellation of a film screening and a play during the festival, and the two venues hosting the “Big Bash” events Saturday had received calls from officials, according to Tan.
He said police had come to Cotton’s Saturday where expatriates and Chinese people mingled but soon left.
Liu Yang, a 27-year-old Chinese homosexual who was enjoying the shows Saturday, said he was amazed by the festival.
“I’ve never been abroad, and I have really wondered how such an event could take place so smoothly — I’m really nicely surprised,” he said.
See Shanghai gay pride: the show goes on AFP – 4
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China hushes up first gay pride week
Beijing – Organizers of China’s first gay pride week were struggling Thursday to find new venues for their events after police in Shanghai warned clubs and bars against joining the planned festival.
The crackdown came even as China’s state-run English-language daily was hailing the celebration as “a good showcase of the country’s social progress” and “an event of profound significance.”
Police and commercial bureau officials warned a local restaurant of “very severe” consequences if it screened films as part of the festival, says an organizer who asked not to be identified. A photo studio called off a theater performance after a similar visit.
Gay activists said the official interference illustrated official Chinese policy toward homosexual gatherings: low-key events in private spaces are tolerated; public activities are banned.
“If you attract a lot of attention and media reports, the government will intervene,” says Wan Yanhai, an AIDS activist in Beijing.
The two American women who organized Shanghai Pride week deliberately avoided scheduling any public events that would have required official permission, for fear of being banned. The festival of film, theater, literary readings, and panel discussions, however, has drawn considerable international media attention, even if the Chinese-language press in Shanghai has made no mention of the event. Most of the 500 or so people who have attended events so far have been foreigners.
There are thought to be around 35 million homosexuals in China, who face considerable discrimination in the workplace and elsewhere if they are courageous enough to come out. Homosexuality was a crime here until 1997, and classed as a mental disorder until 2001. Some government-funded medical institutes are still trying to find a “cure” for homosexuality.
Although gay websites, clubs, and tea rooms have sprung up in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, there is still a taboo on gay culture in Chinese cinema and television. At the same time, adds Mr. Wan, “the traditional Chinese concept of the family is very conservative, and families put heavy pressure on gays to get married.” China hushes up first gay pride week
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Football Team Waterboarded To Make “Political Point” In Gay Pride Film
A Canadian filmaker has made a movie for Gay Pride Week featuring football players getting waterboarded with rainbow-colored underwear covering their noses and mouths, Towleroad reports.
The movie is called “No Safe Words,” a reference to S & M culture, and director Noam Gonick said he intended to make a political point by using the waterboarding imagery.
Canadian gay lesbian news source xtra.ca spoke to Gonick about the film:
The military, says Gonick, “uses homoerotic, aggressive acts to harm victims and act as a contagion to society in general.”
And, he says, it turns us on. “Conquest is not only about territory, or oil, or puppet dictatorships,” he says. “It’s sexual, too.”
Gonick says the film is supposed to draw an analogy to the “conformity” of the gay community.
“It’s about us and who we’ve become,” he says. “We’re willing to do anything to get the approval of the state.”
Watch a clip from the film: @ Football Team Waterboarded To Make “Political Point” In Gay Pride Film
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Being openly gay in Dartmouth athletics
In an article on gay pride week at Dartmouth College, the Ivy League school in New Hampshire, the school paper The Dartmouth interviewed two gay athletes and what they said is not a surprise to anyone who has followed the subject: they wish there were more out jocks.
“[Being gay at Dartmouth] has been a very positive experience, but one thing that definitely disappoints me is the very small population of out gay athletes,” Tyler Ford ‘11, a member of the men’s track and field team, said. “That leaves us without a support system.”
A former water polo player at the school who is about to graduate echoed this sentiment.
“Sports is one of the hardest places to come out in, to feel comfortable. Especially for guys, it’s such a macho area,” Taylor Holt said.
“Dartmouth has had a history of out gay athletes, and gay athletes at Dartmouth have the responsibility that they need to represent something more to closeted gay athletes throughout athletics, to the gay community in general,” Holt said.
In the past, Outsports has featured two out jocks from Dartmouth: Andrew Goldstein in lacrosse and Jamal Brown in track and field. Both athletes reported a positive response from coming out. Still, though, there is tremendous resistance among the majority of athletes to take that step. See Being openly gay in Dartmouth athletics
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