Bisexual visibility on National Coming Out Day

The Bisexual Index, a network of activists, will honor National Coming out Day with badges that can be posted on blogs and social networking sites.

According to Pink News, The Bisexual Index says that the B in LGBT is often silent.

Marcus Morgan, coordinator of the Bisexual Index told Pink News:

“Coming out …

New survey shows gays and lesbians more likely to read blogs

A national survey by Harris Interactive shows that gays and lesbian adults are more likely to read blogs and be members of social networking sites than heterosexual adults are.

The survey found that 55% of adult gays and lesbians read some kind of blog, compared to 38% of adult heterosexuals.

The survey …

Shanghai Journal Gay Festival in China Pushes Official Boundaries New York Times

SHANGHAI — It was shortly after the “hot body” contest and just before a painted procession of Chinese opera singers took the stage that the police threatened to shut down China’s first gay pride festival. The authorities had already forced the cancellation of a play, a film screening and a social mixer, so when an irritated plainclothes officer arrived at the Saturday afternoon gala and flashed his badge, organizers feared the worst.

After some fraught negotiations, Hannah Miller, an American teacher who helped put together the weeklong festival, agreed to limit the crowds, keep the noise down and, most important, “not let anything happen that might embarrass the government,” she explained after returning from the impromptu sidewalk meeting. “That was a close call,” she said.

Crisis averted, the party continued.

And so it went for Shanghai Pride week, a delicately orchestrated series of private events that revealed how far China’s gay community had come, and how much further it had to go. In the 12 years since homosexuality was decriminalized in China, there has been an unmistakable blossoming of gay life, even if largely underground. Most big cities have gay bars, and social networking sites ease the isolation of those living in China’s rural hinterland. Antigay violence is virtually unheard of.

But official tolerance has its limits. Gay publications and plays are banned, gay Web sites are occasionally blocked and those who try to advocate for greater legal protections for lesbians and gay men sometimes face harassment from the police. For years, movie buffs in Beijing have tried, and failed, to get permission for a gay film festival.

This month, public security officials forced Wan Yanhai, a prominent advocate on gay issues, including AIDS, to leave Beijing for a week because they feared he might cause trouble during the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

See

Shanghai Journal Gay Festival in China Pushes Official Boundaries

New York Times

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