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The Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration (ORAM), a groundbreaking international refugee advocacy organization and the first non-governmental organisation focusing exclusively on refugees and asylum seekers fleeing sexual and gender based violence, has just been established:

Alongside its work helping individuals, ORAM also passionately advocates and educates on behalf of LGBT refugees as a group. Raising consciousness about their plight to governments, refugee organizations, communities and the media is critical in bringing desperately needed basic protection to this at-risk population.

The NGO hopes its community-based “Adopt a Refugee” program will create a grassroots network of inspired advocates for susceptible LGBT refugees. Supporting institutions can follow migrants and refugees through their trek to freedom, receiving case updates. Adopted refugees are invited to communicate with their sponsors, forming unique bonds of additional support.

ORAM has already assisted dozens of LGBTs who’ve escaped persecution and honor killings in the MENA region. Using communications technology to assist refugees in places where help was previously unavailable, the organization has been able to work with many LGBT refugees who have sought its help in existing project areas.

“The recent surge in homophobic violence in Iraq has shone a spotlight on the painful truths we’re dealing with first-hand in the Middle East,” said Grungras. “LGBT refugees are the most persecuted people in many regions of the world today. For every reported execution, there are likely tens of judicially or family sanctioned murders, often in the name of honor.”

Read more here.

At the Beijing Olympics last year, there were only 10 athletes (nine female and one male) that were out to the media about their sexuality. We need more athletes with the balls of Martina Navratilova to shatter those closet doors of the sports world.

Patricia McKinney, self-proclaimed “end-time prophet” and senior pastor of the 25-member Connecticut-based ministry behind the gay exorcism video that has taken Youtube by storm is finally speaking to the media:

But, uh, yeah, unfortunately she still sounds like the crackhead she says she once was.

We’re pretty excited about watching Bruno, the new movie by Sacha Baron Cohen of Borat fame, but some of our friends have mixed feelings about the show. In this video, gay celebrities Jack Plotnick, Peter Paige (Queer As Folk), fashion designer Nick Verreos, comedian Jennifer Elise Cox, and LOGO founder Brian Graden express their concern about the film, with some comparing Baron Cohen’s antics to blackface.

After the jump, you’ll find various Bruno clips that we found, including a trailer of the new movie. Some of it is really brilliant (like the one where Bruno talks to a pastor who claims to turn homos into heteros), while others are pretty unfunny. Like any other comedian, Baron Cohen has his hits and misses, I guess. Then there is that last clip that kinda bothers me, where Bruno’s crew shout “Yes on 8″ to a gay cameraman who foiled their shoot.

Read the rest of this entry »

So, as you may have heard, last night in Toronto, gossip queen Perez Hilton called Will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas a “faggot” and ended up getting a black eye himself (see raw footage above). Now when you’re a celebrity like Perez is and you need to file a police report, what do you do? You tweet of course and have someone else call 911 for you. Peas manager, Polo Molina, is said to have turned himself in to Toronto police after the altercation, and since then both Perez and Will.i.am have both gone on Youtube to deliver their side of the story.

Meanwhile, advocacy group GLAAD has called on Perez Hilton to apologize for using the word “faggot”:

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) today issued the following statement in response to a video posted by celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, in which he made the following remarks about a confrontation with will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas and members of the band’s entourage.

“And that is when I made the split-second decision - that I was gonna say what I thought was the worst possible thing that thug [will.i.am] would ever want to hear. As I was standing my ground - without being violent or physical which I would never do - I told him - and you know what? I don’t need to respect you and you’re a f**. You’re gay and stop being such a f***ot.”

“These are vulgar anti-gay slurs that feed a climate of hatred and intolerance toward our community,” said Rashad Robinson, Senior Director of Media Programs at GLAAD. “For someone in our own community to use it to attack another person by saying that it is, quote, ‘The worst possible thing that thug would ever want to hear,’ is incredibly dangerous. It legitimizes use of a slur that is often linked to violence against our community. And it sends a message that it is OK to attempt to dehumanize people by exploiting anti-gay attitudes.”

“We have reached out to Hilton and asked him to apologize for promoting this anti-gay slur, and we would ask media outlets to avoid repetition of the slur in their coverage of this story.”

Reuters is reporting that Toronto police have charged Liborio Molina, the manager of the Black Eyed Peas, with assault.

“While not all the facts in this case are known, the violence that appears to have been committed against Perez Hilton is unacceptable and ought to be condemned in the strongest possible terms,” said Robinson.

Agreed. Appropriate the term faggot to yourself and wear it as your badge of honor and defiance (I do that everyday), but calling someone else faggot in a derogatory manner is just asking for trouble.

This ad for Orbitz Travel features a golfer wearing a shirt that carries the logo of the Human Rights Campaign [at 0:15], an LGBT advocacy group in the US.

And here’s another one from Taco Del Mar that features a (really hot) surfer dude with a Gay & Lesbian Surfer Association sticker on his board.

There, you didn’t know it before, did you? Gay people golf and surf too! [h/t JoeMyGod]

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Mainland China’s first ever Pride season will be hosted in Shanghai, the largest and most progressive city in the world’s most populous nation. While there isn’t going to be an outdoor parade (hey, this is commie China after all), organisers have managed to hammer together a veritable series of events ranging from art shows and film screenings to sporting events and drag performances.  We speak to one of the key organisers of the event, Hannah Miller, who is also founder of the group Shanghai LGBT. If you’re wondering why she looks so familiar, it may be because you saw her in our Take Up the IDAHO Challenge! video

Nihao Hannah! Tell us a bit about yourself.

i am a 30 year old southern American lezzer. I am an environmental education and science teacher at an international school in the Shanghai Zoo called Rainbow Bridge International School. I’m returning to the states in June 2009 to get a masters degree in environmental education, where I’m hoping to meet a few other environmentally friendly lesbians who like to organize things, plant trees, organic garden, get eaten alive by mosquitoes, and travel.

How long have you been in Shanghai? Why China?

I first moved to China in 2001 after I graduated from college and wanted to get out of the country for a while. I first moved to Shanghai in 2002 and have been in Shanghai for a total of five years. I often joke that I left the United States because George Bush was elected my senior year in college and I swore that i would leave the country were he elected, but in all honesty, there were 725890234 other reasons to leave. I was originally planning on staying in China for a year, which turned into seven. Now after seven years I’m going back to the States with no definite plans to return to China.

How has the gay community evolved in China in your time here?

When I first moved to Shanghai there were two gay bars: Eddy’s and Pink. I went to both regularly and asked if anyone knew of any lesbian bars. They didn’t. There were no resources in the media at that time, I couldn’t read or speak Chinese, so it was very difficult to find the queer community. Now that I’ve lived here for a while I have seen a visible change in the LGBT community’s public presence, but that could also be because I’ve been here for a while and have had a chance to get more familiar with the LGBT community. I hope that now when newcomers arrive they are able to more easily find ways to get involved in the gay community and nightlife scene. Gay nightlife has a much more out presence in the media these days, and there are more than ten gay venues all over the city now.

How did Shanghai Pride come about? Who are the guys behind it?

ShanghaiPRIDE is organized by ShanghaiLGBT, which was founded in 2006 by myself and 3 other members of the LGBT community. We have been organizing social events with ShanghaiLGBT for the past few years - we have monthly gatherings, book club, trivia nights, wine tastings, and our annual drag parties and pub crawls. Now that we’ve had a few years to meet everyone and establish a somewhat active LGBT community I thought a gay pride festival was in order. I proposed the idea to the other ShanghaiLGBT moderators and they have dedicated the last 6 months to making it a success. In addition to the 8 ShanghaiLGBT moderators working around the clock, we have over 100 volunteers helping us.

What do you hope to accomplish with it?

I want Shanghai to have a friendly and welcoming reputation around the world - and I want Shanghai to be a fun place for queer people to live, travel through, do business in, and party in. I do not want to make PRIDE a political event or go beyond our means at this point. We are starting off small, doing as much as we can, and hopefully if the first round is a success, it will pave the way for future bigger, brighter pride festivals to come. When people hear about the festival one of the first things they ask is “why isn’t there a parade?” Well, a parade is not an option in China. So I want pride to be as good as it can be considering where it is being held. If it is a successful event, this could be a huge step in the visibility of the queer community in China. So wish us luck!

Thanks for your time, Hannah! We wish you and your team all the best for Shanghai Pride!

Visit the official website of Shanghai Pride for more information and send them your love and well wishes! If you are an organiser of a pride event anywhere else in the world, get in touch with us at partnerships(@)gays.com.

Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic points us to the latest research by Gallop Poll which has one very important finding — that people who do not personally know someone who’s gay tend not to support marriage equality for gay people.

Here’s what Sullivan had to say and we totally agree with him:

If gays are really serious about marriage rights, they need to accelerate the process of coming out. It’s not often that a minority group has this option - African-Americans don’t. But gays, like Jews, can “pass”, and by passing, we don’t even give many people the option of changing their minds and hearts by better understanding who we are, and why our relationships and families strengthen society rather than weakening it.

Yes, donate and campaign and blog. But for all of those of you out there who are gay and do none of this, one simple political act can do much more: let your family, friends and co-workers know who you are. If you don’t, please quit complaining about your lack of civil rights.