I'm not good at playing sports in general. I have never been, since the time when I was forced to participate in organized physical activities in elementary school. I hated, dreaded, and feared P.E. class all through my education. In Japan, cool/popular boys are expected to be good at sports, especially soccer, basketball, and baseball. I have an impression that you could still be popular without playing sports in the U.S. school-age culture, but that was just not a possibility as I was growing up. Since I was never good at any sports that involved balls, my masculinity was constantly being called into question, both from the outside and inside of my head. My growing self-consciousness didn't help the awkward changing times before and after P.E. classes at all.
Still, I was swimming every week. My father worked (and he still does) at a local swimming school, so it was natural that I belonged there, although my parents never forced me to. On and off, I kept swimming, or more like playing underwater, and I became an instructor when I was 15 years old. My self-imposed intense swimming practices began and lasted until I moved to San Francisco.
I have also always liked biking, which is not considered a sport in Japanese culture, unless you rode for competitions that are also gambling for the spectators. I didn't own a road bike or mountain bike, and cycling to me was rather leisure activity than a sport. After coming to San Francisco, I bought a mountain bike and I go biking a little more often than sunny days in this city.
Why am I talking about my favorite sports here? Because I wanted to write about butts.
I have shared good times with some Black guys in bed, and thanks to swimming and biking, many of them complimented on my butt by saying, "You have a nice butt for a Japanese/Korean guy."
It always made me wonder, even more than feel sexy, what was implied in this statement that was intended as a compliment. I see two general themes here:
1) East Asian men are expected to possess relatively flat buttocks; and
2) different (sub-)cultures place different values and meanings on men's (and women's) buttocks.
I remember growing up in Japan, receiving constant messages from the media that women with big butts aren't considered attractive, while I didn't hear anyone mention men's butts at all. Since I'm not very familiar with Japanese heterosexual culture, I don't know the extent to which women's buttocks are discussed among straight men. But my perception was that "You have a nice butt" in Japanese (いいケツしてるね; ii ketsu shiteru ne) sounds more degrading than complimenting to women. So my past experiences told me that bigger butts are less desirable (though perhaps attractive to some).
If you google "butt size," you will notice that there are more hits about increasing butt size than the ones about reducing it. In today's U.S. culture, some argue that voluminous buttocks, especially of Black and Brown women, are increasingly constructed and marketed as "sexy." Professor Myra Mendible wonderfully maps out the gendered, sexualized and racialized nature of booty/body politics, arguing that J. Lo made big butts popular in the mainstream U.S. pop culture. Then, I wonder what the booty politics look like in the Queer male sphere in the U.S. I would speculate that the main narrators of such booty politics are male, and they discuss from a male perspective, both heteronormative and Queer societies share similar patterns of attitudes towards men's and women's butts. This is just like the contents of gay porn and straight porn are quite similar because men are the intended consumers of pornography.
We can also note a racial component of this discussion. I specified the source of the "compliments" on my butt as Black men, not to begin generalizing, but to start asking more questions. In fact, I have never received the same kind of "compliments" from Asian guys, regardless of their preference in sexual acts. What does this mean? Are Queer Black men more likely to find butts attractive? Or Queer Asian men don't really care about butts? Is it because, as some people believe, Black and Brown folks have "nice" butts and Asian folks don't? Are the degrees of butt-appreciation generalizable to so-called Asian/Asian American culture and African American culture at large? What are the historical and social contexts surrounding this butt discussion?
What I wanted to highlight in this essay is that the compliments my butt received are found at the intersection of gender, race, and sexuality. Talking in bed about my butt in comparison to others clearly renders my body as gendered, racialized, and sexualized body. On the one hand, I feel somewhat special just as I'm supposed to; on the other hand, I feel somewhat objectified, alienated, degraded, denied, and disrespected. Can I not have a "nice" butt because I'm Japanese and Korean? My celebration of my body doesn't happen in the context of materialistic competition. Although I'm aware of the intention, all those compliments failed to show their appreciation the right way. Would I give them another chance? Well, I guess I'll see what they've got.
Read more »
Still, I was swimming every week. My father worked (and he still does) at a local swimming school, so it was natural that I belonged there, although my parents never forced me to. On and off, I kept swimming, or more like playing underwater, and I became an instructor when I was 15 years old. My self-imposed intense swimming practices began and lasted until I moved to San Francisco.
I have also always liked biking, which is not considered a sport in Japanese culture, unless you rode for competitions that are also gambling for the spectators. I didn't own a road bike or mountain bike, and cycling to me was rather leisure activity than a sport. After coming to San Francisco, I bought a mountain bike and I go biking a little more often than sunny days in this city.
Why am I talking about my favorite sports here? Because I wanted to write about butts.
I have shared good times with some Black guys in bed, and thanks to swimming and biking, many of them complimented on my butt by saying, "You have a nice butt for a Japanese/Korean guy."
It always made me wonder, even more than feel sexy, what was implied in this statement that was intended as a compliment. I see two general themes here:
1) East Asian men are expected to possess relatively flat buttocks; and
2) different (sub-)cultures place different values and meanings on men's (and women's) buttocks.
I remember growing up in Japan, receiving constant messages from the media that women with big butts aren't considered attractive, while I didn't hear anyone mention men's butts at all. Since I'm not very familiar with Japanese heterosexual culture, I don't know the extent to which women's buttocks are discussed among straight men. But my perception was that "You have a nice butt" in Japanese (いいケツしてるね; ii ketsu shiteru ne) sounds more degrading than complimenting to women. So my past experiences told me that bigger butts are less desirable (though perhaps attractive to some).
If you google "butt size," you will notice that there are more hits about increasing butt size than the ones about reducing it. In today's U.S. culture, some argue that voluminous buttocks, especially of Black and Brown women, are increasingly constructed and marketed as "sexy." Professor Myra Mendible wonderfully maps out the gendered, sexualized and racialized nature of booty/body politics, arguing that J. Lo made big butts popular in the mainstream U.S. pop culture. Then, I wonder what the booty politics look like in the Queer male sphere in the U.S. I would speculate that the main narrators of such booty politics are male, and they discuss from a male perspective, both heteronormative and Queer societies share similar patterns of attitudes towards men's and women's butts. This is just like the contents of gay porn and straight porn are quite similar because men are the intended consumers of pornography.
We can also note a racial component of this discussion. I specified the source of the "compliments" on my butt as Black men, not to begin generalizing, but to start asking more questions. In fact, I have never received the same kind of "compliments" from Asian guys, regardless of their preference in sexual acts. What does this mean? Are Queer Black men more likely to find butts attractive? Or Queer Asian men don't really care about butts? Is it because, as some people believe, Black and Brown folks have "nice" butts and Asian folks don't? Are the degrees of butt-appreciation generalizable to so-called Asian/Asian American culture and African American culture at large? What are the historical and social contexts surrounding this butt discussion?
What I wanted to highlight in this essay is that the compliments my butt received are found at the intersection of gender, race, and sexuality. Talking in bed about my butt in comparison to others clearly renders my body as gendered, racialized, and sexualized body. On the one hand, I feel somewhat special just as I'm supposed to; on the other hand, I feel somewhat objectified, alienated, degraded, denied, and disrespected. Can I not have a "nice" butt because I'm Japanese and Korean? My celebration of my body doesn't happen in the context of materialistic competition. Although I'm aware of the intention, all those compliments failed to show their appreciation the right way. Would I give them another chance? Well, I guess I'll see what they've got.
State Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Calif.), the fierce opponent of gay rights who was arrested last week for drunk driving after leaving a gay nightclub, confirmed in a radio interview Monday that he is gay."I'm gay," Ashburn told local radio host Inga Barks before returning to the Senate for the first time since his arrest. "Those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long."
Ashburn, a 55-year-old divorced father of four, claimed his 15-year crusade against proposed gay-rights laws in the California statehouse stemmed from his desire to vote the way his constituents wanted. - HuffPost
I wanted to share a story about how I am socially incompetent in any context involving males and saying something that isn't a giant pile of shitcock, because last Friday was Cal Q&A's fundraiser for their conference, and something like the following may or may not have happened:
Person A: Hey, *shouldertouch, smile*
Me: WHAT?
Person A: somethingsomethingsomething
Me: OH, AM I IN YOUR WAY? SORRY! *aimless laughing at nothing in particular while scooting out of the way*
Person A: No, no, you're fine. *smile*
Me: UH, OKAY *flail flail flail hit-you-in-the-teeth-with-my-thrashing-arms* omg sry sry sry
This event kind of brought me back to high school, in which, though this may be hard for some of you that know me to believe, I was even more awkward and horrible than I am now.
In 11th grade I'd decided that I didn't know what to say people. When people talked about me, they'd say, "Oh, I don't know Robert very well, whenever I say hi to him he just runs away." Should you ask most of my high school class about me today, they would still say this.
I call this the ROBERT ANGle (made complete by the worrisome hairless spot).
I was told by my father that it was perhaps time to do something differently or else everyone would think I was prickly and unpleasant. Being the sort of person that I was, I decided that the best course of action would be to get lessons of some sort. So, I asked my dear friend Darbee, who went to school with me but whom I knew solely from LJ, to teach me how to make conversation. Needless to say, there is a very good reason why conversation schools don't exist: usually, people that are bad at conversation don't like to talk.
(This is one of those precious photos I have of Darbee and I making cookies in various awful shapes many many years later. I am the one on the left being prickly and unpleasant.)
I mean, what the hell, unless I wanted something from someone, why would I want to talk to them? srsly, wtf is this.
Anyway. Many hours later, I learned the two golden rules of conversation, which were, essentially, "talk about teachers, or ask people questions that make them talk about themselves." This was something that probably should have happened when I was in grade school, because that is the time in which you are supposed to become properly socialized (but I took a lot of sick days, so maybe that was it.)
So, I worked at it, and now, I'm currently able to grunt out a few sentences at people and I try my very best not to run away, and most of the time I don't. I'm thinking that eventually I'll figure out how to do this with top 40s or house/trance (but not hip-hop because hip-hop is awful, I'm sorry) playing in the background and odd surges of hormones going on, because partynight social cues shouldn't be any different. They're just something to be learned.
---
Dealing with people was difficult for me. Why? The Celticist in me says it's because there's no fundamental tribal network in place that enforces alliances and interaction. The psychoanalyst in me would say that it's because I have body image issues. The wiqaable in me says that culturally there's something different about Asian socialization. The cognitive scientist in me, however, wants to talk about brains.
I present to you now, this wonderful TED video by Temple Grandin, who is an Aspergers/Autism activist.
Her video is titled, "The world needs all kinds of minds," and what in particular I took away from her talk was her distinction between the social mind and the thinking mind. In a nutshell, the socially oriented mind would focus holistically on dynamic social situations and stimulation, whereas the thinking mind would focus on facts and analysis of details.
1. Are these two types of thinking distinct?
There are probably a million different ways to separate brain functions and motivations. Is learning facts different from learning social cues? I would argue no, not really. For a wad of my half-baked cog sci, click here. What distinguishes the two are the types of rewards achieved from each mode of thought. I was an intelligent kid, but something fundamentally changed once I'd decided that I would have to interact with people. Behaviorally, social thought is a different mode of thinking, as it motivates your actions in a completely different way.
2. What does it mean for us?
Navigating any identity isn't something that's easy. Not to overgeneralize, but at least my Q&A experience fundamentally puts these two types of thinking at odds. To grow up on a steady diet of family-values, high educational achievement and nonsexuality in an environment full of anything but is not only stressful but also further pushes us to make a more polarized choice in one direction or the other. What I'd recommend to whoever's in charge of everything is to encourage as much learning as possible before puberty, or arresting the process of puberty until you can become a useful member of society. Whatever crippling emotional damage you undergo then won't interfere with the fact that you'll at least be smart. (Disclaimer: this may end in teenagers creating death rays and killing us all for the lulz)
3. How are you going to fill this third bullet point?
To live in a landscape unshaped by some rippling movement, some shuddering exaltation or exhalation. I've been taught and tricked, because it feels good, so so good to see a pretty, have a pretty talk to you, be satisfied through the easy stimulus--sensation. I wish I were brilliant, I wish I could muster silence, be moved by something other than love of man.
To end on an ornery note, anyone that says non-platonic-love-between-two-people is the best thing in the world is a wanker who will not stop the next comet/meteor/whatever that hits Earth from killing us. He or she might procreate and spawn something good, though. Who knows.
Read more »
Person A: Hey, *shouldertouch, smile*
Me: WHAT?
Person A: somethingsomethingsomething
Me: OH, AM I IN YOUR WAY? SORRY! *aimless laughing at nothing in particular while scooting out of the way*
Person A: No, no, you're fine. *smile*
Me: UH, OKAY *flail flail flail hit-you-in-the-teeth-with-my-thrashing-arms* omg sry sry sry
This event kind of brought me back to high school, in which, though this may be hard for some of you that know me to believe, I was even more awkward and horrible than I am now.
In 11th grade I'd decided that I didn't know what to say people. When people talked about me, they'd say, "Oh, I don't know Robert very well, whenever I say hi to him he just runs away." Should you ask most of my high school class about me today, they would still say this.
I call this the ROBERT ANGle (made complete by the worrisome hairless spot).
I was told by my father that it was perhaps time to do something differently or else everyone would think I was prickly and unpleasant. Being the sort of person that I was, I decided that the best course of action would be to get lessons of some sort. So, I asked my dear friend Darbee, who went to school with me but whom I knew solely from LJ, to teach me how to make conversation. Needless to say, there is a very good reason why conversation schools don't exist: usually, people that are bad at conversation don't like to talk.
(This is one of those precious photos I have of Darbee and I making cookies in various awful shapes many many years later. I am the one on the left being prickly and unpleasant.)I mean, what the hell, unless I wanted something from someone, why would I want to talk to them? srsly, wtf is this.
Anyway. Many hours later, I learned the two golden rules of conversation, which were, essentially, "talk about teachers, or ask people questions that make them talk about themselves." This was something that probably should have happened when I was in grade school, because that is the time in which you are supposed to become properly socialized (but I took a lot of sick days, so maybe that was it.)
So, I worked at it, and now, I'm currently able to grunt out a few sentences at people and I try my very best not to run away, and most of the time I don't. I'm thinking that eventually I'll figure out how to do this with top 40s or house/trance (but not hip-hop because hip-hop is awful, I'm sorry) playing in the background and odd surges of hormones going on, because partynight social cues shouldn't be any different. They're just something to be learned.
---
Dealing with people was difficult for me. Why? The Celticist in me says it's because there's no fundamental tribal network in place that enforces alliances and interaction. The psychoanalyst in me would say that it's because I have body image issues. The wiqaable in me says that culturally there's something different about Asian socialization. The cognitive scientist in me, however, wants to talk about brains.
I present to you now, this wonderful TED video by Temple Grandin, who is an Aspergers/Autism activist.
Her video is titled, "The world needs all kinds of minds," and what in particular I took away from her talk was her distinction between the social mind and the thinking mind. In a nutshell, the socially oriented mind would focus holistically on dynamic social situations and stimulation, whereas the thinking mind would focus on facts and analysis of details.
1. Are these two types of thinking distinct?
There are probably a million different ways to separate brain functions and motivations. Is learning facts different from learning social cues? I would argue no, not really. For a wad of my half-baked cog sci, click here. What distinguishes the two are the types of rewards achieved from each mode of thought. I was an intelligent kid, but something fundamentally changed once I'd decided that I would have to interact with people. Behaviorally, social thought is a different mode of thinking, as it motivates your actions in a completely different way.
2. What does it mean for us?
Navigating any identity isn't something that's easy. Not to overgeneralize, but at least my Q&A experience fundamentally puts these two types of thinking at odds. To grow up on a steady diet of family-values, high educational achievement and nonsexuality in an environment full of anything but is not only stressful but also further pushes us to make a more polarized choice in one direction or the other. What I'd recommend to whoever's in charge of everything is to encourage as much learning as possible before puberty, or arresting the process of puberty until you can become a useful member of society. Whatever crippling emotional damage you undergo then won't interfere with the fact that you'll at least be smart. (Disclaimer: this may end in teenagers creating death rays and killing us all for the lulz)
3. How are you going to fill this third bullet point?
To live in a landscape unshaped by some rippling movement, some shuddering exaltation or exhalation. I've been taught and tricked, because it feels good, so so good to see a pretty, have a pretty talk to you, be satisfied through the easy stimulus--sensation. I wish I were brilliant, I wish I could muster silence, be moved by something other than love of man.
To end on an ornery note, anyone that says non-platonic-love-between-two-people is the best thing in the world is a wanker who will not stop the next comet/meteor/whatever that hits Earth from killing us. He or she might procreate and spawn something good, though. Who knows.
UPDATE 2:50 P.M.: Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler (D) says effective immediately the state recognizes same-sex marriages performed elsewhere and state agencies should begin giving gay couples the rights they were awarded elsewhere.
UPDATE 10:25 a.m.: Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Montgomery), who requested the opinion from Gansler, said in a brief interview that he was unsure whether there would be any immediate ramifications.
"It's reaffirmation of what we thought, that Maryland can recognize gay marriage," Madaleno said.
He said that changes in state policy could result from a court ruling, legislation or administrative action.
Original Post: A long-awaited opinion by Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler (D) out Wednesday morning concludes that the state's highest court is likely to rule at some point that same-sex marriages performed in other states are valid in Maryland.
The policy implications of the opinion are not immediately clear, and Gansler says in a one-page summary that his conclusion "is not free from doubt."
Gansler's opinion concludes "that the Court of Appeals, when it ultimately rules on this question in a particular case, will likely apply the principle that a marriage that is valid in the place of celebration is valid in Maryland. The opinion reaches this conclusion in light of the evolving state policy, reflected in anti-discrimination laws, domestic partner laws and other legislation, that respects and supports committed intimate same-sex relationships."
Maryland law currently limits marriages performed in the state to opposite-sex couples. - Washington Post
Read more »
UPDATE 10:25 a.m.: Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Montgomery), who requested the opinion from Gansler, said in a brief interview that he was unsure whether there would be any immediate ramifications.
"It's reaffirmation of what we thought, that Maryland can recognize gay marriage," Madaleno said.
He said that changes in state policy could result from a court ruling, legislation or administrative action.
Original Post: A long-awaited opinion by Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler (D) out Wednesday morning concludes that the state's highest court is likely to rule at some point that same-sex marriages performed in other states are valid in Maryland.
The policy implications of the opinion are not immediately clear, and Gansler says in a one-page summary that his conclusion "is not free from doubt."
Gansler's opinion concludes "that the Court of Appeals, when it ultimately rules on this question in a particular case, will likely apply the principle that a marriage that is valid in the place of celebration is valid in Maryland. The opinion reaches this conclusion in light of the evolving state policy, reflected in anti-discrimination laws, domestic partner laws and other legislation, that respects and supports committed intimate same-sex relationships."
Maryland law currently limits marriages performed in the state to opposite-sex couples. - Washington Post
The entrance to the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center (LGBTRC) on campus was vandalized Friday night with spray paint and derogatory phrases.In addition, early last week, a swastika was carved into the door of a first-year student in a Tercero residence hall. The sign was approximately two inches and was carved next to the door of a Jewish student residing in the dorms.
UC Davis Police are currently investigating both crimes.
Police have not yet identified suspects for either crimes and request that any information regarding who might be responsible be brought forward.
In a letter sent to the UC Davis community, members of the LGBTRC announced that they would not immediately remove the vandalism in order to raise awareness for the struggles that the LGBT community faces. The front entrance where the vandalism appears will be cleaned on Monday night.
"We feel it is easier to erase physical representations of violence than to heal from the ongoing impacts of this hatred," the letter read. "Erasing it makes it possible to avoid believing these things happen on our campus. We want to work towards a healing resolution."
The LGBTRC will hold a town hall discussion to decide further actions and express any concerns tonight at 5:30 p.m. in Regan Main.
Any information regarding potential suspects should be reported to campus police at 530-752-1727.
For further information on these crimes, read tomorrow's Aggie. - UCD Aggie
LETTER FROM THE UCD LGBTQRC
To the Campus Community,
On the night of February 26th the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Resource Center experienced acts of vandalism. The entrance to the LGBTRC was defaced with derogatory and hateful words that target the Queer community.
This vicious hate crime demonstrates the need for community centers like ours to exist in order to offer a safe space on campus and combat the homophobia, discrimination, and hate that is still prevalent within our society.
As a center we wanted not to immediately remove the vandalism in order to ensure that this hate crime does not go unnoticed by the campus community. Facilities and administration offered to clean it up immediately but we wanted to take this opportunity to educate the campus about struggles that our community continues to face. We feel it is easier to erase physical representations of violence than to heal from the ongoing impacts of this hatred. Erasing it makes it possible to avoid believing these things happen on our campus. We want to work towards a healing resolution.
The center will resume regular hours on Monday March 1st, from 9am -5pm. We will also be offering a town hall for the community to come together and express any concerns to collectively decide what actions should take place in the future.
The town hall will take place Monday, March 1st, at 5:30 pm at Regan Main (in the Segundo Dorm area).
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center is here to provide a large range of services for the campus community. In times like these, our presence on campus continues to be of the utmost importance. We have staff available to provide support, including a community counselor, who students can speak to. We know that homophobia is still common in our society and our role is to continue to provide the necessary support and education on campus and in the community. Check our website for a full listing our resources: lgbtrc.ucdavis.edu
We will take what was intended to hurt us and turn it into something that will empower us. We ask that you stay strong and to remind everyone that this act will not hinder, but will re-affirm the mission of this Center as it has always existed.
Sincerely,
The LGBT Resource Center Staff
Homosexuality has been decriminalised by the Crime Decree which came into effect at the beginning of the month.
Former High Court judge Nazhat Shameem has clarified that unlike the Criminal Penal Code which had sentences and punishment set aside for sodomy and unnatural offences, there were no such provisions in the Crime Decree.
"So what has happened is that homosexuality has been decriminalised making people of the same sex to engage in sexual practices as long as both parties are consenting to it," Ms Shameem said.
She added that in 2005, during a High Court ruling, Justice Gerard Winter in the appeal of Thomas McCosker's case, an Australian who visited Fiji and was arrested, tried and sentenced to two years jail for sodomy, ruled that the act of sodomy should not be contained in the laws of Fiji as the nature of the sexual activity was consensual.
"The Crime Decree has brought forward what Justice Winter ruled," Ms Shameem said.
"It can be said that the McCosker case was the precedent for the change in laws."
The Crime Decree was put in place to replace the Criminal Penal Code which was considered to be archaic and not in tune with the changing times. Under the sexual offences provisions in the Crime Decree, the only time homosexuality is considered a crime when there is sex without consent therefore suggesting rape.
The new laws, unlike the Criminal Penal Code, does not include women as victims but persons and incorporates all ways in which a person can be violated.
The Public Order Act, which was put in place by the Government to control incidences of instability, still empowers the law enforcers to arrest people who behave indecently in public.
Ms Shameem added that the public order act is the same for homosexuals and heterosexuals and the law clearly defines that anyone caught in indecent behavior is liable for prosecution.
Decriminalising of homosexuality also should not be seen as a leeway for male prostitutes, the Crime Decree is harsher on prostitution than its predecessor. - FIJI TIMES
Read more »
Former High Court judge Nazhat Shameem has clarified that unlike the Criminal Penal Code which had sentences and punishment set aside for sodomy and unnatural offences, there were no such provisions in the Crime Decree.
"So what has happened is that homosexuality has been decriminalised making people of the same sex to engage in sexual practices as long as both parties are consenting to it," Ms Shameem said.
She added that in 2005, during a High Court ruling, Justice Gerard Winter in the appeal of Thomas McCosker's case, an Australian who visited Fiji and was arrested, tried and sentenced to two years jail for sodomy, ruled that the act of sodomy should not be contained in the laws of Fiji as the nature of the sexual activity was consensual.
"The Crime Decree has brought forward what Justice Winter ruled," Ms Shameem said.
"It can be said that the McCosker case was the precedent for the change in laws."
The Crime Decree was put in place to replace the Criminal Penal Code which was considered to be archaic and not in tune with the changing times. Under the sexual offences provisions in the Crime Decree, the only time homosexuality is considered a crime when there is sex without consent therefore suggesting rape.
The new laws, unlike the Criminal Penal Code, does not include women as victims but persons and incorporates all ways in which a person can be violated.
The Public Order Act, which was put in place by the Government to control incidences of instability, still empowers the law enforcers to arrest people who behave indecently in public.
Ms Shameem added that the public order act is the same for homosexuals and heterosexuals and the law clearly defines that anyone caught in indecent behavior is liable for prosecution.
Decriminalising of homosexuality also should not be seen as a leeway for male prostitutes, the Crime Decree is harsher on prostitution than its predecessor. - FIJI TIMES
BEIJING — He is 25, Muslim and comes from a part of China recently known for deadly ethnic rioting. This weekend, he is competing for the title of Worldwide Mr. Gay.As with all such endeavors in China, the journey has been long and winding.
The Chinese delegate at Worldwide Mr. Gay was supposed to have been the winner of Mr. Gay China, a pageant originally set for Jan. 15 in central Beijing. But at the last minute, the Chinese authorities shut down the show, saying the organizers did not have the right permits.
Nevertheless, 11 people — the three organizers and eight pageant participants — quietly got together in late January and voted to send one of the contestants to Norway. That turned out to be a man from the western region of Xinjiang known publicly only by his nickname, Xiao Dai, or his English name, Andrew. His official pageant name is Xiaodai Muyi, and he landed in Oslo on Tuesday, a day after getting a Norwegian visa.
“After the cancellation, we thought our attempt to educate the Chinese public had failed for now,” Ben Zhang, an organizer of Mr. Gay China, said Friday in a telephone interview. “By sending someone to Oslo, I guess we’re sending out a message to the world that still China is able to send a representative.”
According to the official pageant Web site, the finale takes place on Saturday.
Xiao Dai has been trying to maintain a low profile, and he could not be reached by telephone on Friday. “His schedule is very packed,” Mr. Zhang said.
The English-language edition of The Global Times, a state-run newspaper in China, published a short article on Xiao Dai on Friday, though it misspelled his name. Xiao Dai told the reporter in an earlier interview that he was the team leader of a gay group in Xinjiang, general manager of a local counseling group and chairman of a gay Web site.
“Organizing gay events in Xinjiang is much harder than in Beijing,” he said, according to the newspaper. “Because it is against religion.”
Global Times reported that Xiao Dai is from the largely Muslim Hui ethnic group, which is common in northwest China. Mr. Zhang confirmed that Xiao Dai is known to be Hui. But he has also represented himself at times as Han, the dominant ethnic group in China, Mr. Zhang said.
Ethnicity is a delicate issue in Xinjiang, where Uighurs, the largest Muslim group in the region, coexist uneasily with the Han.
China decriminalized homosexual sex in 1997, but many gay Chinese remain closeted. The authorities have blocked gay events, including several last summer in Shanghai during China’s first Gay Pride celebration.
After the Beijing pageant was canceled, “we were all sort of nervous, edgy and a little scared maybe,” Mr. Zhang said. But despite the irregularities, the organizers of Worldwide Mr. Gay showed enthusiasm for having a delegate from China, he added.
“The headquarters in Oslo was very insistent,” he said.
Because Xiao Dai got his visa only at the last minute, there is no photograph or profile of him on the pageant Web site, as there are for the other contestants. But there is a list of the 30 countries or territories that have sent delegates, and China is on it. - NYTIMES
Cal Queer & Asian invites you to please save the dates for our 3rd Annual Queer & Asian Conference.
To get a glimpse into last year's conference, visit http://qacon09.wordpress.com
In October 2001 I had been in Toronto for less than a year, was single, still identifying as straight and renting a room in the home of a wonderful dyke and her two little girls. The launch of Rewriting The Script caught my attention - queer Brown people were assembling for queer brown things. I went alone. I was curious. I barely knew anyone in the city and I found this anonymity to be comforting, especially at events like these. The launch took place at the Innis Hall theatre which I sat in every Wednesday morning all year for Film Studies 101.
Rewriting the Script: A Love Letter to Our Families is produced by Friday Night Productions, a volunteer collective of South Asians from queer communities, based in Toronto. The video was made over the course of four to five years as a resource for South Asians when coming out to family and loved ones with tiny grants from the City of Toronto and Community One Foundation (previously Gay and Lesbian Community Appeal) and private fundraising.
I don’t remember feeling any emotion as I watched the video, but I was glad that it existed and glad that I had attended the screening. I listened as questions were asked. Most notable was a remark about the lack of a word in Hindi or Urdu to describe gay or queer relationships. I purchased the video on VHS as a gift for one of my cousins. She married a man a year later.
I didn’t really think much about the video after that. Not even after coming out myself in 2004. I didn’t think about sharing it with my mother because my coming out process was simple and it was over the phone, she was on the other side of the planet.
Then in 2007 I landed the job of coordinating a wonderful project called Among Friends, to train service providers on how to work with queer and trans immigrants and refugees. I designed a three-hour workshop, in which I screened Rewriting the Script followed as a way to break the ice. It proved to be one of the more powerful tools used in workshops. The most common response from participants was that the video shed light on some of the struggles our families face when confronted with a queer child. Providers felt better equipped to respond, more aware of what people are facing.
Rewriting The Script is a hugely important video. It has brought the community along. It has given strength to so many who are isolated and struggling. For me, just being at the launch was a significant event, there was an energy in that space which I still remember. It felt like community. At the time it was not my community, but it was community. Queer South Asians (and anyone who experiences ‘otherness’) often lack community, and this is what we struggle with most. Visibility, validation, voice. Rewriting the Script has helped people to speak that voice.
Yet Rewriting the Script has not received the attention it deserves, so I wanted to do my bit and write about it. I posed a few questions to Farzana Doctor, one of the founding members of the Friday Night Productions collective, and here are her responses.
RC: Why did you decide to make this video tool?
FD: Many years ago (I think it was 1996 or 1997) a group of us started talking about how hard it was after we’d come out to our parents. We felt invisible. After coming out, many of our families went into denial, and it was like our proclamations hadn’t even happened. Unless we kept talking about our orientations, relationship etc., it seems like the issue didn’t exist.
So that year we decided to hold a workshop at Desh Pardesh (an annual queer, South Asian arts and culture festival held in Toronto until 2000 or so) called “I came out to my mother at the Dixie Mall Food Court. Now what?”
At the workshop, we had a couple of parents on the panel. The audience, mostly queer South Asians, talked about the need for some sort of resource to help with coming out, but also to talk about what can happen after coming out. They recognized that South Asian parents might not want to go to PFLAG and had no resources for processing the coming out announcements. So, we decided to create a video that straight family members could watch, with role models of other parents talking about their experiences.
RC: Who is the intended audience for the video?
FD: It’s intended mostly for families. But queer people use it too, and show it to their families. I have also used the video at Queer 101 trainings I’ve facilitated to offer examples of intersections between queer and South Asian identities.
RC: What was the initial response from the South Asian community, the queer community and mainstream community?
FD: We showed it to a packed audience most of whom were queers and queer allies. There was overwhelming support and celebration for the video. Since then I sometimes hear from young queer folks who found it helpful – it spoke to their experience. To mainstream audiences (at Queer 101 training) it’s mostly a hit (except for consistent complaining about the poor sound quality! I wish we had more money for higher production value)
RC: How was the project continued since then?
FD: The year after it came out we hired someone to do outreach to South Asian communities, to get the video out there. We later hired another person to distribute it to groups across Canada, the US and UK. We hired people to create a manual to use alongside the video. We made international versions and distributed them to groups in India. We’ve done closed captioning and updated to DVD. We still bring in sales money occasionally which is used to have more copies made. The manual is now also available in PDF form on our website. And we have a Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&ref=ts&gid=7943082239
RC: Can you share any stories from people who have watched the video with family, and received understanding or acceptance?
FD: One story I recall – a young woman was going to come out and she decided to show the video to her parents as part of the process. They all watched it together (nervously) and it seems to help them open up some dialogue. I recall she said that it was helpful that everyone in the video was South Asian and they we addressed the myth that ‘this is a White thing.”
RC: Do you have anything in the works for the future?
FD: Many of the Friday Night Productions members have since had children and we thought a video about South Asian queers with kids would be good. But right now we don’t have the resources or the time to commit, we sacrificed many Friday nights to get the first one done – hence the collective’s name. And other good films on the topics have since been made including the wonderful DVD “Brown Like Me” from ASAAP.
For me as a writer it’s important for me to engage these issues through literature, so that’s where my energies have moved. “Stealing Nasreen” which has queer South Asian characters came out in 2007 and “Six Metres of Pavement”, my second novel, will come out in winter 2011 with Dundurn, and it too addresses some of these themes.
RC: What do you think are the major challenges facing South Asian queers in North America today?
FD: I think visibility and community spaces continue to be challenges, even with the gains we’ve made in the last decade. It’s still hard for queers to come out to their families, and families still don’t have enough supports.
For more about Rewriting the Script and where to get the DVD visit their website: http://www.rewritingthescript.ca/index.html
Farzana Doctor is a Toronto-based author and social worker. Her novel, Stealing Nasreen (Inanna, 2007) has received critical acclaim from the Globe and Mail, Quill and Quire, and NOW Magazine. She has also co-written a manual for therapists and was part of the video collective that produced the documentary, “Rewriting the Script”. She is now working on revisions on her second novel, A Six Meter Stretch of Pavement. Check out her website at www.farzanadoctor.com
"Watch this, post it to your fb, and help spread the word. These people put themselves out there for the world in protest against the claim from the Phillippine Commission on Elections that LGBT people are immoral and not fit to run for elections." RT Alex B.
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Apprently, Japanese-American pop star Utada is pitching for gay marriage.Hikaru Utada, a megastar in Japan, is currently touring to support her latest English-language album This Is The One. At her San Francisco show on January 24th, she threw baseballs scrawled with a very cute teddy bear holding a sign reading “Legalize Gay” into the crowd.
While the J-Pop star hasn’t made any public political statements, Utada recently did a Christmas duet with flamboyant bi pop singer Mika and tracks from her remix album Dirty Desire are showing up on gay club playlists worldwide. - JustOut
Go to the Community Townhall at API Wellness Center in San Francisco!Thursday, January 28th from 4 - 6 pm
730 Polk Street, 4th Floor.
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Letter from the E.D.:
With a heavy heart, I write to you—our supporters, clients, and community members—to communicate some painful changes at Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center. Across the world, we are all experiencing a difficult start to 2010. The earthquake in Haiti is causing unimaginable hardship for countless families and communities, and our hearts and prayers are with them. Closer to home, we at A&PI Wellness Center are also going through a difficult transition, and our hearts and prayers are also with those most affected by the upcoming changes. We have had to make some painful decisions about our service delivery model in Alameda, San Mateo and San Francisco Counties that will undeniably affect our HIV-positive clients.
Decreased funding at the national, state and local levels have overtaxed A&PI Wellness Center’s budget, necessitating drastic cuts to ensure long-term sustainability. Because of this, we closed our operations in Oakland, CA and Daly City, CA on January 15, 2010. Our 45 clients in these areas are being triaged to their respective county services. Services at our San Francisco office will remain open. This decision hurts, but it could not be avoided. We must be fiscally responsible in order to secure the future of our services to the community. We are committed to this goal, to building a vital and healthy future.
This decision was made in full consultation with the Board of Directors and was a direct response to ongoing agency budget reductions. Over the past three years, public and private funds to our programs and services for HIV-positive Asians & Pacific Islanders have been reduced by over $350,000 annually, representing over 40% of the budget for these programs. Despite this decline in funding, A&PI Wellness Center has carried a financial deficit for the past several years in order to maintain our services. We continued to provide services in Alameda and San Mateo Counties without any dedicated support from the state or local governments.
Still, A&PI Wellness Center worked hard to avert any reduction in services, opting instead to aggressively pursue new funding sources and institute other cost-saving measures. Over the past year, we reduced our overall workforce by 20%. We also reduced non-HIV-positive client services by $150,000 through the end of our fiscal year (in the form of overall agency salary reductions, hiring freezes, and streamlined expenses). Despite these strategies, approximately $80,000 of forecasted revenue for HIV direct services failed to come through in 2009, leading to a projected fiscal year-end deficit of $160,000 for these programs alone. A deficit of this magnitude jeopardizes the future of A&PI Wellness Center and demanded immediate corrective action.
We know these painful and difficult decisions directly impact the health and well-being of many of our clients and community members. We share this loss with you. I understand and am terribly sorry AND I know we needed to do this. We needed to do this to ensure we are here to stay. We must continue to support all our communities—A&PI youth, transwomen and transmen, gay and bisexual men—and the Asians and Pacific Islanders living with HIV most affected by these changes. We will continue to advocate and fight for more resources and health services on behalf of all our clients. We will work to secure long-term A&PI HIV health services for our communities.
In San Francisco, HIV-positive clients will still be able to access services at our main office’s on-site clinic (730 Polk Street), including mental health services and intensive case management services. We will also continue to provide our HIV and Hepatitis testing services in addition to our health education programs for the transgender community, gay and bisexual men, and LGBT youth. These programs increase sexual health awareness and sensitivity to issues facing people living with HIV. Without them, we cannot hope to build a healthy community or prevent new HIV infections.
A&PI Wellness Center Board Chair Mike Rabanal addressed this issue recently, saying: “While HIV case management services outside San Francisco have been eliminated, a wealth of services delivered by our San Francisco-based staff will continue, and we encourage our clients outside of San Francisco to access these resources to the extent they can. These difficult events have made clear the need to invest in the expansion of our policy advocacy program as well as the implementation of our free health clinic. These initiatives will allow us to fight for the continued funding of critical client service programs. We must fight to implement a more sustainable model of health delivery for our clients, less reliant on government-based funding.”
A&PI Wellness Center is hosting a Community Town Hall meeting to communicate the organizational changes being implemented and our vision and plan for the future. We know everyone is invested in the future health of the A&PI community, and we appreciate your concern and feedback. Feel free to attend the meeting this coming Thursday, January 28th from 4–6pm at 730 Polk Street.
I’d like to say a deep and heartfelt good-bye to our staff leaders who are departing—thank you for your many years of commitment, expertise, service and leadership on behalf of the agency. Your collective contributions are immense and will be missed deeply.
I know that some of you may be troubled by this news. Please know that my virtual door is always open to you (lance@apiwellness.org).
Take good care,
Lance Toma
Lance Toma, LCSW
Executive Director
- APIWC
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