Archive for January, 2010
Taipei Publishes City Gay Guide
Jan 30th
Taipei – Taiwan on Friday launched its first official guide book for homosexuals, hoping to portray Taiwan as a gay-friendly place.
The booklet, titled ‘The Queer Guide’, was printed by the Taipei County Government to promote tourism in the Greater Taipei area. The 48-page booklet uses 7 pages to introduce gay spots, but 41 pages to offer general tourism information and warnings against AIDS.
Lin Kuo-ning, from the Taipei County Government’s health department, said the idea for printing the Queer Guide came from the country government’s concern about the health of homosexuals.
“Two years ago we began to make anonymous HIV tests to gay men at gay spots in Taipei. We wanted to print a sheet with information about AIDS, but thought it would be better if we publish a Queer Guide,” he said by phone.
“We have printed 2,000 copies of Queer Guide to distribute at gay saunas and shops,” he said.
The Queer Guide is the first travel guide for homosexuals issued by Taiwan authorities. There is already a Taiwan Gay Guide which is published by a gay group.
While many homosexuals welcomed the Queer Guide, some complained it is not gay-oriented and should not mention AIDS.
“This pamphlet talks mainly about travel for the general public, not about gays. Gay Guides in foreign countries serve only gays. They tell you where to go and what to see,” Lai Cheng-cheh, owner of Gin Gin Bookstore, a gay bookstore in Taipei, said.
“And the pamphlet starts by talking about prevention of AIDS. What does AIDS have to do with homosexuals? I don’t understand,” he said.
Lin, from the Taipei County Government, said the county government is seeking feedback from homosexuals to revise the pamphlet.
“In the second edition, the section about gay topics will be larger, and we will print photos of gay models to introduce travel destinations for homosexuals,” he said.
Taipei city has a history of supporting GLBT rights, and partly finances some gay pride events.
No Mr Gay For China
Jan 19th
Beijing (AP) – China will not send a delegate to the Worldwide Mr. Gay pageant next month, an organizer said on Monday, after police blocked the local event to choose a Chinese contestant.
Police shut down the first-ever Mr. Gay China pageant just before the event started on Friday, but organizers had planned to privately select a candidate from the eight contestants. They have now reversed their decision, so no one from China will compete at the pageant in Oslo, Norway.
”This was a very carefully considered decision,” said Ben Zhang, a pageant organizer. ”We just cannot send anyone, the organizers and competitors came to this decision together.”
Zhang declined to elaborate on the reasons for not sending a delegate.
Worldwide Mr. Gay Executive Producer Tore Aasheim told The Associated Press that he was ”saddened and surprised that the Chinese authorities took such steps.”
”China once again shows that they don’t honor human rights,” he said.
Homosexuality remains a sensitive topic in China. Gays are frequently discriminated against and ostracized, and any Chinese national who competes at the Norway pageant would likely be the target of uncomfortable scrutiny, especially after police canceled Mr. Gay China.
Police cited a lack of permits for canceling the pageant at a swanky Beijing club. Chinese authorities frequently cite procedural reasons for closing down gatherings deemed politically sensitive.
The pageant would have featured a fashion show and a host in drag.
Aasheim said that the Mr. Gay China organizers told him that they decided not to participate in the worldwide competition in Oslo next month after Chinese officials threatened to strip any attendees of citizenship.
”If any of the participants travel to Oslo, they won’t be allowed to return to China,” Aasheim said. ”They’d risk losing their citizenship, losing their right to go home. It’s a cruel thing to do.”
He added that Chinese officials had confiscated the Chinese organizers’ passports.
In response, Aasheim said his organization plans to stream the Worldwide Mr. Gay competition in February online and to grant access for free to any Chinese Web sites that want to host the live video feed.
Mr Gay A First For China
Jan 12th
Beijing – This is the question everyone will soon be asking, as both foreign and Chinese press caught their first glimpse of five of the eight Mr Gay China Pageant contestants yesterday afternoon at Lantung Bar and Bistro in Solana Mall.
Gayographic, Beijing’s only gay PR and event management company, is organizing the landmark pageant that will be held this Friday evening at 8 pm on Friday at LAN Club. For Ben Zhang, co-founder and managing director of Gayographic, the message is clear.
“We hope to send out a message to the Chinese public that the gay community is here and it’s healthy, sexy, trendy,” he told METRO in an interview on yesterday.
Zhang explained that the inspiration to throw the first Mr Gay China Pageant on the Chinese mainland came from a friend of a friend, who was a producer for the Mr Gay Hong Kong Pageant. Recognizing the company’s ability to hold such a bold event, the pieces soon fell into place. And as word began to spread, so did the pressure, as well as support and make it happen.
One contestant, 26 year-old Emilio Liu, said he did not think it was possible at first: “When Ben first asked me about [the pageant] I accepted as a joke,” he said. “I accepted because I never thought something like this would happen in China.”
Zhang said he received a total of about 12 applications, and had asked some people like Liu because they were friends. The eight finalists, he said, are from all over China.
“Six are based in Beijing, but none are from Beijing,” he said. “We’ve got contestants from Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Chongqing, Tianjin, Chengdu, Liaoning, and Harbin.”
The winner will compete in the final competition in Oslo, Norway in February. The Worldwide Mr Gay Pageant includes 32 delegates worldwide. The pageant’s objective, according to a press release from Gayographic about the event, is to use a “beauty competition” to raise the self-esteem and visibility of gay men internationally.
The Mr Gay China Pageant will consist of three rounds: the freestyle round, the fashion show, and the underwear questions and answer segment. According to Zhang, the freestyle round is in lieu of a talent segment because they did not want to discourage applicants from applying.
“For the freestyle part they can come and do whatever they want – sing, take off their clothes, dance,” he explained, grinning.
The fashion show will have contestants select garments provided by a German fashion designer David Uble and strut their stuff on the catwalk. In each round, judges will eliminate two to three contestants until the final round, when the audience itself will then elect the first Mr Gay China.
There will be a panel of five judges for the competition, and according to Zhang are men, women, gay, straight and “represent all walks of life and a little bit of local flavor.”
Few participants, however, were completely out to their friends and family.
For contestant Steven Zhang, 30, his father does not know that his son his gay, let alone competing in a national beauty pageant for gays.
“I think this will out me,” he admitted, “whether I like it or not.”
For David Wu, also 30, he is counting on the Mr Gay China Pageant being publicized in certain media channels that his family is not likely to read.
“I don’t believe the Chinese language media will report the competition,” he said, “So I’m not really worried about my parents finding out.”
Emilio Liu said that his mother and his friends know, but his father still does not know.
“If I said, ‘Dad, I’m gay.’ He’d be like, ‘Gay? What is that?”
