g_b File - PLEASE NOTE-URGENT
Hello All Please remember and understand that any post you send to the mailing list or as a reply to any mailing list message reaches everyone in the mailing group who is subscribed to the list.so send only relevant messages and only those messages that you intend to share with everyone. if you want to reply to a personal email, please click on that person's email, compose an email and then reply. dont hit the reply button as the email then goes to all subscribers of the group.If you send a personal reply to someone looking for mate, by simply hitting the reply button, it shall not be carried. Naturally, the person to whom you wanted to reply shall not get your email. So, please be considerate and send the reply directly to the person by copying his email. Regards Moderator
Re: g_b Need a Gay Friend in Chennai
Hey contact me Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
Re: g_b Australia's anti-gay churches shift focus to Asia Pacific
Excellent note Vikram, As it is, we are having trouble fighting against Section 377 and in that if such religious organizations come and poison peoples minds, then the challenges will increase many fold. Collectively all the LGBT rights group should protest against them. Only when we all unite, is when we can conquer the world. Very well said Vikaram, Rahul. Ardhnarishwara Support Group (cherishing the delightful enchanting Rainbow World) Group CEO - Ravishing Rahul Headquarters - Vagator, Goa. On Monday, November 10, 2014 1:08 AM, Vikram D vg...@yahoo.co.uk [gay_bombay] gay_bombay@yahoogroups.com wrote: An article that really should be read to alert us to the threat that these ex-gay organisations might pose to use in India. As this article notes, because they are facing a dead end in places like Australia they are shifting their focus to places like India. And far from providing just an individual focused service, they are actively contributing to the rise of institutional homophobia. This will not come as a surprise to many of us. We have got hints of this over the years. I think there was a case when someone from Exodus International came to NLS in Bangalore and was confronted by activists. The participation of evangelical groups like Apostolic Churches Alliance among the petitioners against the Delhi High Court verdict in the Supreme Court also hinted at this kind of support, though groups like these might be trying to cover their traces in order to prevent exposure of this international lobbying - even as they accuse lgbt groups of being funded by international lobbies. We need to be alert for these efforts and try to expose them. So please make note of the names involved here - Ron Brookman, Living Waters Australia, On Eagles Wings to Asia, Exodus Asia Pacific, Shirley Baskett - and publicise their involvement if you come across it. And for real evidence of how twisted and harmful these people are, don't just read the story, but also the extensive discussion in the comments after it. Vikram Australia's anti-gay churches shift focus to Asia Pacific | | | | | | | | | Australia's anti-gay churches shift focus to Asia PacificThe country’s final gay conversion ministry closed last weekend. Now the same pastors are taking their mission overseas. | | | | View on www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au | Preview by Yahoo | | | | | from The Saturday Paper: Australia's anti-gay churches shift focus to Asia Pacific Luke Williams The country’s final gay conversion ministry closed last weekend. Now the same pastors are taking their mission overseas. The little group met last Saturday at Ramsgate Community Church, on the southern flank of Sydney. Attendance at the service was by invitation only. Guests were asked to sign confidentiality agreements, assuring they would not discuss what was said inside. This was the final meeting of the country’s last remaining gay conversion ministry, Living Waters Australia. In a letter to followers issued a few weeks earlier, long-time director Ron Brookman confided that he had been unable to find anyone willing to take up the running of his ministry, and that he sensed God telling him it was “time to wind up”. He blamed a change in Christian culture over the past decade, deficiencies in his own leadership, and changing views on how to “bring healing to the broken”. “Wholesome heterosexuality alone reflects God’s image,” wrote Brookman, who believes the healing power of Jesus Christ eliminated his own homosexual desires. “Though society resists this and is abandoning Godly moral foundations, God’s truth will prevail.” On the other side of Sydney, on the second floor of a Darlinghurst pub, a soft-voiced man named Anthony Venn-Brown stood and spoke. “The trauma, the grief … some of us have taken our own lives because of these ‘change is possible’ programs,” the former ex-gay ministry member said. “Many of us sit here today knowing we too have been to those dark places, where we thought about taking our own lives. And some of us here today know we have tried it.” This event was supposed to be a celebration, marking the end of the Living Waters ministry and the so-called “ex-gay movement” in Australia, but the mood was positively sombre. “It’s not when we first go to these gay conversion programs that does the damage,” Venn-Brown continued. “It’s in the months that follow … Every time we wake up and think about another man we are tormented. You feel like a failure, you feel evil. It’s living out those moments every single day which eventually drives people to suicide.” Living Waters Australia had its heyday in the 1990s when, along with Exodus International, it had popular weekly workshops and programs in all major cities. It also outsourced its material, which meant many local churches ran Living Waters programs for people who sought pastoral advice on same-sex
Re: g_b Striking the wrong note...
QUESTION: I was under the impression that Section 377 is called a De-Facto rule under which no one has been prosecuted yet in India. (Which means the rule is there in existence, but has not been brought into effect til now) Can you please clarify, if that is true? Thanks, Rahul. Ardhnarishwara Support Group (cherishing the delightful enchanting Rainbow World) Group CEO - Ravishing Rahul Headquarters - Vagator, Goa. On Monday, November 10, 2014 1:09 AM, gay_bombay moderator modera...@gaybombay.in [gay_bombay] gay_bombay@yahoogroups.com wrote: Striking the wrong note... Salacious, prurient, insensitive - that is the yellow journalism practiced by much of the media when it reports on gays. The latest case is a good illustration, says VIKRAM JOHRI Posted/Updated Saturday, Nov 01 12:53:29, 2014 In June, a lesbian committed suicide in Chhattisgarh. The act received only cursory coverage, perhaps because the story was from a state that does not normally hit the radar of gay rights. When I searched Google News for lesbian suicide India, links from 2011 and earlier showed up. (Rest assured, if it is a dastardly event, the chances it happened earlier in India are high.) There was only one link to the story, in the June 16 Raipur edition of the Times of India. A 22-year-old woman from Pakhanjur tehsil in Kanker district, who was in a relationship with an allegedly minor girl, had committed suicide. Following the news of her death, her partner also tried to kill herself by consuming poison, the report added. Apart from this news report, the only other mention of the Chhattisgarh story was in a review in Mint of a film about lesbians. Perhaps it is no bad thing that the woman’s suicide or the many other permutations of violence that visit gay people in India do not receive much media coverage. For, when the media does deign to report on gay issues, it is marked by a regrettable lack of sensitivity, making one wonder if homosexuality, that famed “last prejudice”, is organically such a different beast that it is impossible to report or write or speak truly about it unless one is born to it. This week brought a fresh example of this malaise. The headline of the top story of the Bangalore Mirror dated Oct 29, 2014, said: Section 377 slapped on Infosys techie after wife catches his gay acts on spycam. The first paragraph read: Lip gloss, foundation, innerwear in 'girlie' patterns and colours, and a passion for all things pink - these are just some of the traits that set off alarm bells in a dentist's head, almost a year after marriage, that her husband could be gay. Examine the language. This is the same paper whose sister publication in Mumbai peeped into Deepika Padukone's cleavage and found newsworthy material. From the first sentence, there is a desire to turn the story into a narrative - the gay man with a fetish for pink - as the writer watches over the reader's shoulder to induce the appropriate gasp here, the disgusted look there. The words, so carefully chosen to fashion the image of a man thoroughly compromised, tell us what to think before we have had the chance to learn the first detail of the case. To be sure, there are no easy answers in these cases but we rarely see even the relevant questions being raised in the media. There is, for example, no discussion on the irony of applying a law to those who have been forced to stay in the closet because of the law itself. All the media does is report with an eye for prurience. Details of how the marriage broke, the lack of sexual compatibility, the queer habits of the man, are all regurgitated in an effort not to capture a personal tragedy but to arouse the reader's base instincts. Consider another case. The death of Chetan Bharadwaj, an advertising executive in Mumbai, last year was strikingly similar to that of Pushkin Chandra in Delhi in 2004. Both Pushkin and Chetan were affluent, upper middle class men living in metros. They were also gay. The dead bodies of both were discovered naked. Reports indicated they were under the influence of alcohol at the time of death. They had also had sex moments before their deaths which, in both cases, were violent and brutal. There were other similarities. The murderers in both cases were slum dwellers, or labourers. In Pushkin’s case, they were men he had come across on the street. In Chetan’s case, the murderer was a glass worker whom Chetan had met when he came to work in his housing society. Contrast these murders with the lesbian’s suicide in Chhattisgarh. The same media which failed to report the latter went to town with Chetan’s death. (Pushkin’s occurred in a strikingly different media environment ten years ago, and so its coverage does not really count.) The gory details of how he was killed, what his daily itinerary was, etc., were discussed threadbare by nearly all the Mumbai English dailies. There was a tendency, as has
Re: g_b Striking the wrong note...
here is the link http://www.thehoot.org/web/Striking-the-wrong-note---/7872-1-1-25-true.html http://www.thehoot.org/web/Striking-the-wrong-note---/7872-1-1-25-true.html Please post such important and interesting articles with the URL link. It is required for archiving purposes! Please send the one for this one now. Thanks, Aditya B On 10 November 2014 00:51, gay_bombay moderator modera...@gaybombay.in mailto:modera...@gaybombay.in [gay_bombay] gay_bombay@yahoogroups.com mailto:gay_bombay@yahoogroups.com wrote: Striking the wrong note... Salacious, prurient, insensitive - that is the yellow journalism practiced by much of the media when it reports on gays. The latest case is a good illustration, says VIKRAM JOHRI Posted/Updated Saturday, Nov 01 12:53:29, 2014 In June, a lesbian committed suicide in Chhattisgarh. The act received only cursory coverage, perhaps because the story was from a state that does not normally hit the radar of gay rights. When I searched Google News for lesbian suicide India, links from 2011 and earlier showed up. (Rest assured, if it is a dastardly event, the chances it happened earlier in India are high.) There was only one link to the story, in the June 16 Raipur edition of the Times of India. A 22-year-old woman from Pakhanjur tehsil in Kanker district, who was in a relationship with an allegedly minor girl, had committed suicide. Following the news of her death, her partner also tried to kill herself by consuming poison, the report added. Apart from this news report, the only other mention of the Chhattisgarh story was in a review in Mint of a film about lesbians. Perhaps it is no bad thing that the woman’s suicide or the many other permutations of violence that visit gay people in India do not receive much media coverage. For, when the media does deign to report on gay issues, it is marked by a regrettable lack of sensitivity, making one wonder if homosexuality, that famed “last prejudice”, is organically such a different beast that it is impossible to report or write or speak truly about it unless one is born to it. This week brought a fresh example of this malaise. The headline of the top story of the Bangalore Mirror dated Oct 29, 2014, said: Section 377 slapped on Infosys techie after wife catches his gay acts on spycam. The first paragraph read: Lip gloss, foundation, innerwear in 'girlie' patterns and colours, and a passion for all things pink - these are just some of the traits that set off alarm bells in a dentist's head, almost a year after marriage, that her husband could be gay. Examine the language. This is the same paper whose sister publication in Mumbai peeped into Deepika Padukone's cleavage and found newsworthy material. From the first sentence, there is a desire to turn the story into a narrative - the gay man with a fetish for pink - as the writer watches over the reader's shoulder to induce the appropriate gasp here, the disgusted look there. The words, so carefully chosen to fashion the image of a man thoroughly compromised, tell us what to think before we have had the chance to learn the first detail of the case. To be sure, there are no easy answers in these cases but we rarely see even the relevant questions being raised in the media. There is, for example, no discussion on the irony of applying a law to those who have been forced to stay in the closet because of the law itself. All the media does is report with an eye for prurience. Details of how the marriage broke, the lack of sexual compatibility, the queer habits of the man, are all regurgitated in an effort not to capture a personal tragedy but to arouse the reader's base instincts. Consider another case. The death of Chetan Bharadwaj, an advertising executive in Mumbai, last year was strikingly similar to that of Pushkin Chandra in Delhi in 2004. Both Pushkin and Chetan were affluent, upper middle class men living in metros. They were also gay. The dead bodies of both were discovered naked. Reports indicated they were under the influence of alcohol at the time of death. They had also had sex moments before their deaths which, in both cases, were violent and brutal. There were other similarities. The murderers in both cases were slum dwellers, or labourers. In Pushkin’s case, they were men he had come across on the street. In Chetan’s case, the murderer was a glass worker whom Chetan had met when he came to work in his housing society. Contrast these murders with the lesbian’s suicide in Chhattisgarh. The same media which failed to report the latter went to town with Chetan’s death. (Pushkin’s occurred in a strikingly different media environment ten years ago, and so its coverage does not really count.) The gory details of how he was killed, what his daily itinerary was, etc., were discussed threadbare by nearly all the Mumbai English dailies. There was a
g_b Tim Cook’s coming out: Leaning in, trickling down
http://paper-bird.net/2014/11/07/tim-cooks-coming-out/ New post on *a paper bird* http://paper-bird.net/author/scottlong1980/ Tim Cook’s coming out: Leaning in, trickling down http://paper-bird.net/2014/11/07/tim-cooks-coming-out/ by scottlong1980 http://paper-bird.net/author/scottlong1980/ [image: Poster - Coming Out Party_04] https://scottlong1980.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/poster-coming-out-party_04.jpgI've lost interest in being gay. Not the sex; the slogans. This has been gathering over time -- whose identity wouldn't shudder under the dark suspicion it was shared with John Travolta http://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s09e12-trapped-in-the-closet? -- but something changed when coming out stopped being a matter of self-affirmation, with its secret thrill of hedonism, and became a moral obligation. What's the fun of being yourself if you *have *to? Everyone must be out now; and it's not enough to be out, you have to be out enough to affirm the community, uplift the race. Thus Guy Branum (writer and comedian) has reprimanded Nate Silver, the numbers man, who announced he was gay a couple of years ago. Silver topped off his moment of candor, however, with a demurral: I don't want to be Nate Silver, gay statistician. Wrong. *Silver's refusal to fully participate in gay identity is the real problem *... We can't behave like Nate Silver's choice to distance himself from gay culture is just another choice. ... We need to make it safe for a statistician to be gay *and* have it affect their work, because some people are gay, some people are black, some people are women and all of those perspectives can enrich all fields. Nate Silver being a gay statistician will help that. *[emphasis added]* Just as Philip Roth *had *to be a Jewish novelist, and Toni Morrison *had *to be a black writer, constrained in the gated communities of identity, so yes, Nate Silver, you have to be a gay statistician. Coming out isn't just a public act because it's *addressed *to a public, but because it's *owned *by one. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, came out this week, and oh the humanity. People didn't just congratulate him; they hailed him as Moses or Martin Luther King, as if he hadn't just written an op-ed in *Bloomberg Businessweek* http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-30/tim-cook-im-proud-to-be-gaybut had revised the Bible. Tim Cook’s announcement today will save countless lives. He has always been a role model, but today millions across the globe will draw inspiration from a different aspect of his life -- so said http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/tim-cook-takes-courageous-step-forwardChad Griffin of the Human RIghts Campaign. Apple is a sponsor https://www.apple.com/diversity/of the Human Rights Campaign (The work we do with these groups is meaningful and inspiring, the company says). While it's impossible to decipher how much money they ladle out, they give enough to make them an HRC Platinum Partner http://www.hrc.org/the-hrc-story/corporate-partners/platinum. HRC thus slobbers on the hand that feeds it. But *some* praise for Cook is unpaid. The unbribeable *New York Times* quoted http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/technology/apple-chief-tim-cooks-coming-out-this-will-resonate.html?smid=tw-share_r=0 the unbribeable Lloyd Blankfein, of Goldman Sachs: “He’s chief executive of the Fortune One. Something has consequences because of who does it, and this is Tim Cook and Apple. This will resonate powerfully.” [image: A light in the darkness: Cook, with logo] https://scottlong1980.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/1031_tim-cook-624x441.jpg A light in the darkness: Cook, with logo I love my Apple swag, and God forbid I should be cynical. Yet for days fulsome praise of Cook filled my Mac's screen, and I resisted just enough to wonder where the enthusiasm came from. How will a rich executive's painless revelation, offered at the apex of his career, change lives, even save them? What do you mean, it will resonate -- where, with whom? What does it say about our ritual public confessionals? What does it say about *us?* Start with this. The *New York **Times *quotes http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/technology/apple-chief-tim-cooks-coming-out-this-will-resonate.html?_r=0Richard L. Zweigenhaft, co-author of *Diversity in the Power Elite: How It Happened, Why it Matters* ... who has closely tracked the progress of minorities in business. For Zweigenhaft, Cook's announcement inspired “the same feeling that I had back in 1998, when many were speculating about when the first African-American would be appointed a Fortune-level chief executive.” It's odd Zweigenhaft was speculating about that in 1998. The first African-American head of a Fortune firm dates back to http://www.blackentrepreneurprofile.com/fortune-500-ceos/ 1987. (At least by some counts.) So much for closely monitoring. The man was Clifton Wharton, and he was CEO and chairman of the pension behemoth TIAA-CREF.
g_b Money cannot be eaten
Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been poisoned, Only after the last fish has been caught, Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten. - Cree Indian Prophecy (Learning http://om.symphonyoflove.net/gallery/learning @ OM) http://om.symphonyoflove.net/?attachment_id=2119 (Click above for the bigger image) ___ I like the night. Without the dark, we'd never see the stars. - Stephenie Meyer (Positive thinking http://om.symphonyoflove.net/#positive-thinking @ OM) Quoting Og Mandino http://lovequotes.symphonyoflove.net/og-mandino-love-quotes-and-love-sayings.html, I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars. http://om.symphonyoflove.net/?attachment_id=2118 (Click above for the bigger image) ___ These 4 amazing wildlife parks in Singapore offer you endless amazing encounters and a welcome respite from the bustle of the city. Take a look at these 4 Amazing Wildlife Parks in Singapore ___ Are you planning a trip with your family or friends? Please consider using the hotel booking services by Symphony of Love at JOURNEY http://journey.symphonyoflove.net/.
g_b Create each day
You do not live each day to discover what it holds for you, but to create it. - Neale Donald Walsch (Life http://om.symphonyoflove.net/gallery/life @ OM) Quoting Abraham Lincoln http://lovequotes.symphonyoflove.net/abraham-lincoln-love-quotes-and-love-sayings.html, The best way to predict your future is to create it. http://om.symphonyoflove.net/?attachment_id=2121 (Click above for the bigger image) ___ Teach your children that it is in sharing the most, not gathering the most, that the most is received. - Neale Donald Walsch (Children http://om.symphonyoflove.net/#children @ OM) Quoting Sir Winston Churchill http://lovequotes.symphonyoflove.net/sir-winston-churchill-love-quotes-and-love-sayings.html, We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. http://om.symphonyoflove.net/?attachment_id=2120 (Click above for the bigger image) ___ We focus so much on our differences, and that is creating, I think, a lot of chaos and negativity and bullying in the world. And I think if everybody focused on what we all have in common - which is - we all want to be happy. - Ellen DeGeneres ___ Are you planning a trip with your family or friends? Please consider using the hotel booking services by Symphony of Love at JOURNEY http://journey.symphonyoflove.net/.
g_b Photography
Hi All, Any photographers in the group please? I recently got Canon 70D with 18-135 lenseLets connect. Much Love. Amit
g_b Do good
Love is the only force that can erase the differences between people or bridge the chasms of bitterness. - Gordon B. Hinckley (Love http://om.symphonyoflove.net/#love @ OM) Quoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. http://lovequotes.symphonyoflove.net/category/m/martin-luther-king-jr-dr, Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. More quotes by Gordon B. Hinckley http://lovequotes.symphonyoflove.net/2AWlJ http://om.symphonyoflove.net/?attachment_id=2132 (Click above for the bigger image) ___ The reality is that doing good unto others actually does more good for you. - Richelle E. Goodrich (Kindness http://om.symphonyoflove.net/#kindness @ OM) Life is interesting, the more good you do, the more good you receive; it may not come back the way you expect it to be, but it will always come back. More quotes on Kindness http://lovequotes.symphonyoflove.net/8t93y http://om.symphonyoflove.net/?attachment_id=2131 (Click above for the bigger image) ___ What you have carried in your mind about the world is what you will see around the world. - Neale Donald Walsch (Attitude http://om.symphonyoflove.net/#attitude @ OM) The world is a reflection of your inner world. Change your inner world and the world you look at change. More quotes by Neale Donald Walsch http://lovequotes.symphonyoflove.net/0aVmW http://om.symphonyoflove.net/?attachment_id=2130 (Click above for the bigger image) ___ The more anger towards the past you carry in your heart, the less capable you are of loving in the present. - Barbara de Angelis (Letting go Moving on http://om.symphonyoflove.net/#letting-go-and-moving-on @ OM) Release the past and a whole new life opens up before us. More quotes by Barbara de Angelis http://lovequotes.symphonyoflove.net/uWoKB http://om.symphonyoflove.net/?attachment_id=2129 (Click above for the bigger image) ___ What tests your patience is what can help you grow your patience. - Robin Sharma (Patience Timing http://om.symphonyoflove.net/#patience-and-timing @ OM) Similarly, as what Carl Jung http://lovequotes.symphonyoflove.net/carl-jung-love-quotes-and-love-sayings.html once said, Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. http://om.symphonyoflove.net/?attachment_id=2128 (Click above for the bigger image) ___ The act of taking the first step is what separates the winners from the losers. - Brian Tracy (Take action http://om.symphonyoflove.net/#take-action @ OM) Quoting Jack Canfield http://lovequotes.symphonyoflove.net/jack-canfield-love-quotes-and-sayings.html, Nothing happens until you take action. http://om.symphonyoflove.net/?attachment_id=2126 (Click above for the bigger image) ___ http://journey.symphonyoflove.net/future-music-festival-asia-2015-singapore-fmfa15.html Great news for music fans in the Republic! Singapore has been announced as the new host of the Future Music Festival Asia 2015 (#FMFA15). Join 50,000 fans across two days in this music extravaganza. Find out more. http://journey.symphonyoflove.net/future-music-festival-asia-2015-singapore-fmfa15.html http://journey.symphonyoflove.net/underwater-world-singapore-presents-soak-in-pink.html $7.50 per pax Splashin' promotion to Underwater World Singapore for residents in Singapore. An incredible one-stop destination for the family - hours of fun, leisure and learning! Bring your kids down for a great bonding time! http://journey.symphonyoflove.net/underwater-world-singapore-presents-soak-in-pink.html ___ Are you planning a trip with your family or friends? Please consider using the hotel booking services, at no extra cost to you, by Symphony of Love at JOURNEY http://journey.symphonyoflove.net/.
g_b RedFM Bengaluru speaks to the wife who filed the 377 case
This recording of a RedFM show is really worth listening to because the host manages to connect with the wife who filed a S.377 case against her husband when she learned he was gay. https://soundcloud.com/redfm-bengaluru/disha-oberoi-explores-section-377 There has been quite a lot criticism for her actions, and sympathy for the husband, but the recording does show some of the complexities in the case. While I think its fair to wish she hadn't done this, one does get a sense from her interview of how she was driven to this by the selfish and unsupportive response she got from her husband when she asked him for a divorce. She says he said she could leave if she liked, and when she went to his parents they said the same. By putting the onus on her to leave it seems like they were trying to ensure they wouldn't have to give her a settlement - and I bet they are really regretting that today. These situations where gay men are forced into marriage with women are awful and there are victims all around, but I have to say, having spoken to some of these guys, many of them are really messed up about it, but you do find a few who are just jerks. They are so focused on themselves and their problems, they have no empathy for the women who are in this situation from no choice of their own. The families of the guys can be even worse. Quite often, they force the marriage despite full knowledge of the son being gay. Its some combination of wanting to do what society expects plus wanting to ensure their beloved sons are taken care of. I've heard of mothers who tell their sons to treat their wives as servants, but get married. It is a real sign of the poison contained in a patriarchal system that a woman can be driven to treat another woman in this way.
g_b Jiyo Parsi
Jiyo Parsi..!! A government scheme to ask Parsis (Indian Zoroastrian Community) to have more children has raised a storm of protest from within the community... However I feel this is a very good step. The Indian Parsi Community is the last vestige of the ancient Zoroastrian Culture anywhere in the world and if they disappear, that will be the end of this glorious spiritual and cultural tradition. That certainly needs to be avoided. I think every Parsi has a duty to ensure that does not come to pass. In fact I feel that even the legions of gay Parsi men should become sperm donors to assist Parsi Infertility issues. http://scroll.in/article/689268/We-are-not-pandas-Irate-Parsis-criticise-ads-urging-them-to-procreate/?utm_content=buffer812e5utm_medium=socialutm_source=facebook.comutm_campaign=buffer -- -- ADITYA BONDYOPADHYAY Development Sector Consultant Advocate (Regd. No. F-218/192 of 1997, Bar Council of W.Bengal, India) Website: http://adityabondyopadhyay.webs.com/ Notice to all recipients: Communication not intended for you but reaching you inadvertently needs to be treated as confidential and destroyed or deleted immediately. Use of such communication in a manner prejudicial to the interest of Aditya Bondyopadhyay and/or his principals, and/or his clients, and/or his agents respectively, may attract legal proceedings which may be of a civil or criminal nature. Aditya Bondyopadhyay and/or his principals, and/or his clients, and/or his agents respectively cannot be held liable or accountable for any and every communication reaching out through this email account that is an unaltered forward of another communication received by this email account, or a referred source available on the internet and accessible to the public.
g_b Fwd: [MSM-Asia:4488] D-day for the Pill for HIV – Two studies mark a turning point in HIV prevention
From Paul Causey: *At first I thought this looked like more of the same reported here earlier. After closer review seems to me that it is one of the most clear overviews of just what happened recently in the two Europe PrEP studies, which were so deemed so successful the trials were ended early and PrEP was offered to all participants so all could benefit, and why those events mark “a turning point in HIV prevention. -Paul* D-day for the Pill for HIV Posted: 05/11/2014 11:49 GMT Updated: 05/11/2014 11:59 GMT - - Email http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/gus-cairns/the-pill-for-hiv-has-just_b_6101584.html# - Comment - [image: Share on Google+] http://plus.google.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.co.uk%2Fgus-cairns%2Fthe-pill-for-hiv-has-just_b_6101584.htmlhl=en-US - http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.co.uk%2Fgus-cairns%2Fthe-pill-for-hiv-has-just_b_6101584.htmltitle=D-day%20for%20the%20Pill%20for%20HIV - http://reddit.com/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.co.uk%2Fgus-cairns%2Fthe-pill-for-hiv-has-just_b_6101584.htmltitle=D-day%20for%20the%20Pill%20for%20HIV *Two studies mark a turning point in HIV prevention* http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/gus-cairns/the-pill-for-hiv-has-just_b_6101584.html The media coverage of the unexpectedly early success of two trials of pre-exposure prophylaxis - PrEP - has generally been positive, sometimes overly so (NHS to offer tablet which can reduce HIV risk by 90% http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/nhs-to-offer-tablet-which-can-reduce-hiv-risk-by-90-9799965.html said The* Independent *- not yet it won't). But I haven't seen anything that actually explains why the results of the PROUD http://www.proud.mrc.ac.uk/ andIPERGAY http://www.ipergay.fr/ studies are so important, or why they represent a gear-change in the accelerating race towards the end of HIV. To recap: PrEP means taking an anti-HIV pill daily, or in advance of exposure, to prevent HIV infection. It's not a new idea: think quinine in pink gin to stop malaria, think statins to stop heart attacks, think above all of the contraceptive pill. It's different from *post*-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), which means taking, so to speak, the morning-after pill. So what just happened is that on 16 October the researchers behind the PROUD trial, in which 545 gay men in England were given daily pills of the anti-HIV medicine Truvada(R) either immediately or after a year's delay, announced that what had been intended as a mere pilot study had been so dramatically successful that they were offering all participants immediate PrEP. Less than two weeks later, the scientists behind the IPERGAY trial - which offered 400 French and Canadian gay men PrEP (or placebo pills) to be taken in advance of sex - announced that they, too, were offering PrEP to all the men on placebo because, prompted by PROUD, they'd taken a look at their data and found high levels of effectiveness too. Both teams were cagey about putting figures on what they'd seen in their studies but IPERGAY's lead researcher Jean-Michel Molina let slip to a couple of gay magazines that effectiveness was in the order of 80% http://yagg.com/2014/10/29/ipergay-impressionnante-reduction-de-la-transmission-qui-atteint-les-80/; PrEP stopped four out of five infections that would otherwise have happened. PROUD is unlikely to have lower effectiveness than this, and may well have higher. There's all sorts of reasons these results are great news. Europe has lagged behind the US and even Africa in HIV prevention research - yet here were European researchers delivering pivotal results. IPERGAY tested a new way of taking PrEP - when you think you'll need it, rather than daily - which means people will now have choice of two effective ways of taking it. PROUD was designed to be as close to 'real life', to what it's probably going to be like getting PrEP on the NHS, as possible. Thirdly, the researchers involved community members from the outset not just in consultation but in designing the trial and making decisions: one result is myself, who is co-chair of PROUD not because I'm any kind of scientist but because I'm an HIV activist. But the central importance of both IPERGAY and PROUD is that these are true *effectiveness* results, not *efficacy* ones. These two terms are often used interchangeably, even by scientists, but generally efficacy means the effect a treatment *can* have while effectiveness means the effect it actually *does* have. Efficacy figures are often quoted because they look better: they measure the effect of the treatment on the people who actually took it the way they were supposed to. Effectiveness measures the effect of the treatment on everyone allocated to it - regardless of whether they took it or not. It's a much fairer measure, as it shows not just whether the treatment works, but whether people like it or want
g_b remember sections 388 and 389 IPC
When the Supreme Court upheld Section 377 one of the immediate reactions was that this was a shocking case of the court empowering blackmailers. Throughout its history S.377 - and similar laws across the world - has been used extremely successfully to extort money from gay men who are too scared of prosecution under the law to fight back. This is exactly what we are now seeing. From across the country cases are coming of queer people being blackmailed or harassed by threat or sometimes the actual use of S.377. Just today I have heard the most startling case where a businessman gave Rs10 lakhs because he got a letter saying that the person sending it had video evidence of him having sex with other men. One reaction that such stories sometimes get is that people who give in to blackmail deserve what they get - that (a) they should not have been stupid enough to get into the situation in the first place and (b) they should not give in, but call the blackmailer's bluff. Blackmail depends on the victim being afraid, and if you are not, it can't work. But saying this doesn't allow for the extreme loneliness that drives people to take risks, and yes, stupid risks too at times. Yes, you should be careful who you pick up and where and what you do, but its always easier to say this in hindsight. And it is also easy to be courageous when its not happening to you. When you are the one who opens an email or letter and finds not just the threat of your privacy being exposed, but the knowledge that someone is malign enough to want to do it, you can feel the bottom falling out of your world. This still does not mean one should give in to blackmail. It may be tempting to just give the money and hope it all goes away, but it never does. Blackmail is an addiction, and quite lucrative too, and blackmailers very often repeatedly keep coming back for more. And even if they don't the victim is always afraid that they, or someone else, will. So if this situation happens to you, or to someone you know, the first thing to tell them is to find a way not to be afraid. If they have family from who they fear exposure, they should ask themselves one hard fact - in the long run will the family mind more that one of them is gay or that he is giving away Rs10 lakhs, and probably even more over time. Whatever people might feel about homosexuality, they usually don't want to lose a lot of money! The second thing to tell yourself, or them, is that S.377 is not easy to prosecute. This is why the police actually does not use it very much, but prefers to use the threat of it, or more easily implementable and vague laws like 'obscene conduct' in public or drinking without a permit (which is what most people who are arrested at parties are usually prosecuted under, which is why responsible party goers get permits, and party organisers arrange for them). Proving S.377 without a doubt really requires a medical examination and this is not going to be easy to organise. Video evidence might count too - though of course there are all the arguments about video being tampered with which politicians routinely trot out! But this is one good argument not to record yourself having sex, however much this turns you on! At least one S.377 case which has been going on for a while involves recording that a husband made with his male lover which his wife got her hands on. And finally, we actually have protection from the same source that threatens us - the Indian Penal Code. Buried away in IPC are two sections, S.388 and S.389 which state that attempt to blackmail using sections of IPC as a threat, is as much of a crime as going against those sections of IPC! This perhaps recalls some residual wisdom among people, like Lord Macauley who drew up IPC, that the law can be misused and it is best to provide remedy against it. This is what Sections 388 and 389 do, and they specifically mention S.377. S.388 says that whoever extorts money by putting someone in fear of being accused of a grave crime is liable to be punished severely, and S.389 says that whoever even threatens someone with a view to extortion, will be punished severely, and both of them end by saying and, if the offence be punishable under section 377 of this Code, may be punished with 1[imprisonment for life]. It is really quite remarkable and worth reading: Section 388 in The Indian Penal Code Section 389 in The Indian Penal Code Somehow in drafting IPC, the framers did acknowledge that S.377 in particular was liable to be abused, and hence they tried to provide some protection. Of course, the best solution is not to prosecute people for consensual same sex relations, but at least this attempt at balance does exist. The problem is that these are obscure sections of IPC and few people, even lawyers know about them. They are not easy to use because the victim, in going to the police to implement the law, has
g_b (unknown)
An interesting article from the excellent online news magazine Scroll.in on how children's and young adult books in India are starting to include lgbt characters: Gay characters, single-parent families: Books for Indian kids begin to reflect real life Gay characters, single-parent families: Books for Indian... The narrative is broadening. Issues like sexuality and class are getting reflected in children's books. View on scroll.in Preview by Yahoo This follows a trend from around the world. LGBT characters started appearing in children's and young adult (YA) books sometime back. It includes some real classics like the short story Am I Blue (link below, and well worth reading) and some really good novels like Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower (which really shows how these classifications like YA and so on are pointless, since this is a good novel by any standards or classifications). For a while many of these kids and YA books were, as they are in India today, a niche genre which, ironically, only became well known outside the LGBT community when homophobes found out of them and started screaming about 'indoctrination' of kids and trying to ban these books from school libraries. Some of these quite innocuous books feature on the lists of most banned books! But in a sign of how much things are changing, lgbt characters are cropping up in mainstream childrens and YA books, and these are much harder for the homophobes to ban. One of the best examples is Rick Riordan's phenomenally successful Percy Jackson series. In the current Percy Jackson and the Heroes of Olympus series it was revealed in the second last book, The House of Hades, which released last year, that a key character, who had been part of the first series Percy Jackson and the Olympians had come out as gay or, at least admitting to same sex attraction. This caused lots of homophobic parents to start screaming about inappropriate themes, which simply and happily showed up their dilemma - they were letting their kids read this series thinking there was and would be nothing gay in it, and now they either had to let them continue or ban them, and good luck with that. Riordan himself released an extremely robust and common sense statement that firmly refuted allegations of inappropriateness. It is worth reading the relevant parts which don't reveal the name of the character, but if you click on the link you'll get his FAQs which do reveal the character's name (this is in case there are any Riordan fans here who haven't read House of Hades, which I realise is unlikely, but you never know!): http://www.rickriordan.com/about-rick/faq.aspx (the answer is in the only FAQ with a SPOILER alert) I’ve been lucky enough to teach all sorts of students – fifth grade to twelfth grade, rich and poor, from numerous ethnic backgrounds, with diverse religious traditions and a variety of learning differences. I’ve also taught gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students. Some self-identified as early as elementary school. Some came to terms with their sexual orientation later in high school. Most had a hard time during the middle grades, which are tough years for any child. All my middle school students enriched my classroom. They made me a better teacher and a better writer for children, and they all deserve my support. I am committed to writing appropriate books for the middle grades. This means no bad language, no gratuitous or explicit violence, and no sexual content beyond what you might find in a PG-rated movie – expressions of who likes whom, holding hands, and perhaps the occasional kiss. The idea that we should treat sexual orientation itself as an adults-only topic, however, is absurd. Non-heterosexual children exist. To pretend they do not, to fail to recognize that they have needs for support and validation like any child, would be bad teaching, bad writing, and bad citizenship. There's also the Kevin Keller series from Archies comics. Again, a gay character was introduced into a series so mainstream and familiar that its hard for parents to stop their kids reading them. Remarkably, as this Salon article points out, Kevin is just one element in a remarkable reinvention of the Archies series: How “Archie” went from dull to daring: The world’s tamest comic series is now our most groundbreaking How “Archie” went from dull to daring: The world’s tames... Archie used to be the safest, squarest comic book franchise out there. But in the past few years, something changed View on www.salon.com Preview by Yahoo Rather sadly, the importer of Archies in India - one of their biggest markets - doesn't seem to be getting most of these more cutting edge series, but in time it will get harder for him to keep out these new Archies comics, and for those who want to read them they are anyway available online. I've bought the whole Kevin Keller series as e-books and you can probably
g_b Visiting US Under Secretary calls for Indian Government to change Discriminatory Laws on LGBT.
Visitig US Under Secretary calls for Indian Government to change Discriminatory Laws on LGBT. 13 November 2014 at 20:19 https://www.facebook.com/notes/aditya-bondyopadhyay/visiting-us-under-secretary-calls-for-indian-government-to-change-discriminatory/1015480600384 https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=864790296885305id=743261785704824aymt_tip=1placement=aymt_hot_post_notif# PublicFriendsFriends except acquaintancesOnly MeCustomClose FriendsMSMGFSee all lists...LGBT CBO/NGO IndiaBoys of Bangladesh (BoB)Naz Male Health AllianceCREANew Delhi, India AreaFamilyAcquaintancesGo Back US Under Secretary calls for Indian Government to change discriminatory Laws on LGBT. Excerpts from a speech by visiting United States Under Secretary Sarah Sewall, delivered at American Centre, New Delhi, on Thursday, November 13th, 2014: - *At the State Department, I am responsible for human rights, democracy, law enforcement, counter-terrorism, stabilizing conflict situations, addressing the challenges of refugees and migrants, and combating sex trafficking and forced labor. There is a common thread running through them -- they all rely on just, transparent, and accountable rule of law, without which all of these goals are undermined. * - *Let me be clear—strengthening the rule of law does not mean giving people in power additional tools to enforce their will. The rule of law must be built on laws and institutions to protect rights for all and, where protection fails, giving citizens the ability to access and pursue justice to help make the situation right again. It is the antidote to discriminatory traditions and customs, which undermine overall progress toward peace, stability and growth.* - *Some citizens face challenges that require special attention, and I would like to speak for a few moments about some of those challenges. * - *The rule of law also needs to extend to the protection of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals. As the United States has repeatedly raised our voice about this concern around the world, we sometimes hear the response that LGBT issues must be subordinated to cultural and historical preferences. But we are not talking about cultural issues—we are talking about people. People should not be subjected to violence, abuse, or discrimination simply because of the peaceful expression of who they are.* - *That was as true, say, for African Americans in the United States during the Civil Rights movement as it is for LGBT persons in the U.S. and around the world now. My country’s most searing human rights struggles have involved ending baseless discrimination around dearly-held issues of identity. That is why combating discrimination and violence against vulerable minorities, including ethnic and religious minorities, has become a core tenet of our diplomacy.* - *As you might expect, then, we—along with many others in the international community and your own civil society —are closely following the developments around the criminal status of homosexuality in India and urging that laws must not discriminate against members of the LGBT community or perpetuate a climate that risks fueling violence toward them.* Like https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=864790296885305id=743261785704824aymt_tip=1placement=aymt_hot_post_notif# https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=864790296885305id=743261785704824aymt_tip=1placement=aymt_hot_post_notif#
g_b Seek happiness within
The choice to have a great attitude is something nobody or no circumstance can take from you. - Zig Ziglar (Choice http://om.symphonyoflove.net/gallery/choice @ OM) Quoting Viktor E. Frankl http://lovequotes.symphonyoflove.net/viktor-e-frankl-love-quotes-and-love-sayings.html, We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. http://om.symphonyoflove.net/?attachment_id=2117 (Click above for the bigger image) ___ You're never ready for what you have to do. You just do it. That makes you ready. - Flora Rheta Schreiber (Take action http://om.symphonyoflove.net/#take-action @ OM) From my personal experience that happened many years ago. I had been asked a few times to give a business presentation but I always put it off saying that I was not ready yet. Then I was basically thrown on the stage once and I realised I wasn't as not ready as I thought. It was definitely not one of my best presentations but a realisation that day that to be ready, we just have to do it and we'll definitely get better along the way. http://om.symphonyoflove.net/?attachment_id=2116 (Click above for the bigger image) ___ If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it. - John Irving (Dreams http://om.symphonyoflove.net/#dreams @ OM) Quoting H. Jackson Brown Jr. http://lovequotes.symphonyoflove.net/h-jackson-brown-jr-love-quotes-and-sayings.html (P.S. I Love You), Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. http://om.symphonyoflove.net/?attachment_id=2115 (Click above for the bigger image) ___ True happiness lies in your own Self. Nowhere else. It is the core of your personality. Seek happiness within. - Swami Parthasarathy (Happiness http://om.symphonyoflove.net/#happiness @ OM) Quoting Martha Washington, The greater part of our happiness depends on our dispositions, and not on our circumstances. More quotes on Happiness http://lovequotes.symphonyoflove.net/O9tnx http://om.symphonyoflove.net/?attachment_id=2114 (Click above for the bigger image) ___ Whenever you’re in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude. - William James (more quotes by William James http://lovequotes.symphonyoflove.net/william-james-love-quotes-and-sayings.html) ___ Are you planning a trip with your family or friends? Please consider using the hotel booking services, at no extra cost to you, by Symphony of Love at JOURNEY http://journey.symphonyoflove.net/.
g_b Are you watching... Faking It ?
For those who haven't discovered this MTV US comedy show, just find some way to watch it! It is, sadly, not showing in India and I wonder if it ever will (70:30 chances I think, since MTV India sometimes likes to push the envelope and the show doesn't show explicit sex, even if it hints at a lot!). But it it doesn't seem to be hard to find ways to download it, and it is totally worth doing so. The basic premise of the show does sound potentially offensive - two girls in high school who are best friends are accidentally taken to be a lesbian couple and instead of causing problems, this makes them very popular in their super progressive school. They decide to go along with this, one of them because she thinks it might give her a chance with the hottest straight guy in school who, in the way of apparently many straight guys, is obsessed with the idea of having sex with a lesbian. All this sounds like the set up for a totally stereotyped, borderline offensive American high school film of the kind that tries to be slightly 'alternative' but isn't really. But Faking It does a couple of unexpected things. For one, it has very smart dialogue and plots that spool together intricately and expertly in each half hour episode. Second, it has some really cool and attractive actors - not just drop dead gorgeous ones, though there are several (image google Gregg Sulkin), but there are actors who can put a smart, complex spin on what could easily just be a candyfloss role. But mostly its what Faking It does with the queer themes, which far from being marginalised in the usual way, are up front and centre, but rarely in cliched ways. Its also inclusive, with gay, lesbian, possibly bisexual and, in a real surprise and some kind of first, an intersex character. In its low key, comedy focussed way, this is quite a revolutionary show. Revealing more details will require spilling plot twists, so I won't (though if you can't wait look up the recaps on sites like The Backlot). Just try to find a way to download and watch it! Vikram
g_b from Indian Express: A letter from a mother to her son
In advance of Children's Day on November 14th, the Indian Express' Sunday supplement published a collection of letters from parents to their children. This is a particularly moving one from a mother to her queer son. (Please consider posting comments about it. All too often we leave online commenting to homophobic trolls) : Children’s Day: A letter from a mother to her son Children’s Day: A letter from a mother to her son Every day, my day begins at six with a cup of tea that I make for myself. Whenever you are in town, I go back to stare at your face. View on indianexpress.com Preview by Yahoo From a mother to her son ‘I know you are afraid of nothing now’ Dear Babu, Every day, my day begins at six with a cup of tea that I make for myself. Whenever you are in town, I go back to stare at your face. You sleep peacefully, with your lips parted and eyes half open. For as long as I can remember, this is how you have slept. That’s the only time I see you absolutely peaceful. When you wake up at 11, frantically asking for your coffee, and rush to get ready for lunch with your “BFFS”, my day begins. That day, my day began at 5.55 am. For the first time, you woke me up with a cup of tea. I asked, “Are you leaving early today?” “No. I’ll be with you today.” We cleaned up your room together. You made me lunch. Some vegetables and meat tossed in a pan, brown bread and old port wine from my closet. At 4 pm, you said, “Ma, let’s go out.” I was happy. Like always, you picked out a sari for me. We went to Flury’s. We ordered a club sandwich and a pie. I saw you fidgeting. I asked you, “What’s the matter?” “I want to tell you something. I know you know, though.” “What do I know?” “You remember that film, Ma?” I knew. I remembered. I had denied it. Two years ago, you wrote and made a film as a part of your cinematography course. It was a rather intense film about a young man and his terminally ill mother. When we watched it, I had cried. I didn’t think of anything else back then. Or did I? If I didn’t, why did I feel you needed to tell me everything about your life since then? Why do I check all the time to make sure you get all my assets after me? Why do I feel the need of a guardian for you, after me? I’m not very old. Forty-five is definitely not an age to feel threatened. Then why this craving for your glimpse, every day? “Well, I made that film for you. I thought you would understand.” “Understand what?” “That I’m … I’m a … I do not like girls … not in a girlfriend-boyfriend way…” You need not have said anything else. I couldn’t hear anything else. No more living in denial. In fear. It’s out there. I should feel free. The sandwich arrived. Like always, I broke off a piece and put it in your mouth. You had tears in your eyes. We didn’t speak that day. The next day, I called your best friend in Bangalore. You didn’t know that, did you? I said, “You knew something more about him than me. But the truth is, I did know. Always.” He said, “Aunty, it’s as simple as the fact that I prefer rice for lunch and he prefers bread.” I knew you chose your life correctly, your career, your friends, your clothes, your hairstyle, even the kohl you apply on your eyes. I also knew that the one thing that you didn’t choose, but were born as, is also correct. It’s like I get to see you as you are, every day. Strangely, when you leave for college now, I miss you and fear for you a little less. I know you are afraid of nothing now. “So, you are going to find someone for yourself, right?” “Well, you can save me all the work and find someone for me.” Love, Ma Sanchita Sarkar is a Kolkata-based homemaker and her son Aritra is a student of cinematography at the Film and Television Institute of India
g_b GB Film Club Screening on Sunday November 30th
This is just to tell everyone to mark their calendars for Sunday November 30th when GB will be having one of its super popular Film Club screenings. It will be happening, as usual, at National College in Bandra from around 1.30 pm to 8 pm. This is a free event, but entrance is restricted to those who respect the space. A lot of excellent gay films are being released as DVDs before the end of this year, and it looks like friends coming from abroad will be able to get us some just in time for this event, so it should really be worth attending. More details on the films to be shown will be posted closer to the date.
