Occasionally a trickle of gay films makes it through the censors and the distribution channels. We had the love stories. Brokeback Mountain. Imagine Me and You. Then there were the shows that featured famous people, among them last year’s Indignation fundraiser, Wilde. Now there is Milk, a intelligent biopic that is deeply entwined with the gay movement.

To put the premise in a nutshell, Milk is the real-life story of the first openly gay man who took political office in the US, Harvey Milk. He ran for office three times, was finally voted city supervisor on his fourth try, and only a year later, had an untimely death at the hands of another supervisor. Gus Van Sant tells the story of this man in personal and political terms, tracking his career and recreating his love life, taking some dramatic liberties with the latter while remaining outwardly faithful to the former.

So that I can get this out of the way first — I think Milk succeeds through its sincerity, its contemporaneity, the political relevance of a buoyant civil rights movement, brilliant acting from Sean Penn and the supporting cast, and a lot of effort and talent put into the production otherwise.

For Immediate Release

(New York, December 19, 2008) – In a powerful victory for the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 66 nations at the UN General Assembly yesterday supported a groundbreaking statement confirming that international human rights protections include sexual orientation and gender identity. It is the first time that a statement condemning rights abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people has been presented in the General Assembly.

The statement drew unprecedented support from five continents, including six African nations. Argentina read the statement before the General Assembly. A cross-regional group of states coordinated the drafting of the statement, also including Brazil, Croatia, France, Gabon, Japan, the Netherlands, and Norway.

The 66 countries reaffirmed “the principle of non-discrimination, which requires that human rights apply equally to every human being regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.” They stated they are “deeply concerned by violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms based on sexual orientation or gender identity,” and said that “violence, harassment, discrimination, exclusion, stigmatization and prejudice are directed against persons in all countries in the world because of sexual orientation or gender identity.”

LGBT Activists at the UN General Assembly’s Historic Session, Dec 18, 2008. Back row, left to right: Charlotte Bunch (Center for Women’s Global Leadership/CGWL), Kate Sheill (Amnesty International/AI), Jelena Postic (IGLHRC international advisor), Susana Fried (UNDP), Kim Vance and John Fisher (ARC International), Philippe Colomb (Inter-LGBT France), Renato Sabbadini (ILGA), Rev. Jide Macaulay (Metropolitan Community Churches Nigeria), Second row, left to right: Ariel Herrera (AI), Cynthia Rothschild (CWGL), Paula Ettelbrick (IGLHRC), Vanessa Jackson (International Service for Human Rights), Bruce Knotts (Unitarian Universalist), Joyce Hamilton (COC Netherlands), Todd Larson (IGLHRC). Photo Credit: Adrian Coman, IGLHRC. You can download a high resolution version of the image from IGLHRC’s website.

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The 3rd International Lesbian and Gay Association-Asia Regional Conference was held in Chiangmai, Thailand from 24th to 27th January 2008. Being a member of ILGA, a few of us from Sayoni Singapore travelled to participate and vote in the event.

At first, we were caught off guard by the sheer diversity of people who attended. The conference brought together about 160 delegates from a whole range of Asian countries, to name a few, China, HongKong, Macau, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Mongolia, Burma, Philippines, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Kyrgystan, Armenia, etc etc.

The difficulty of initial communication and fruitful networking aside, seminar sessions were many and diverse in their content and quality. Of particular importance was the launching of the Yogyakarta Principles by Prof. Vitit Muntarbhorn.

Prof. Vitit Muntarbhorn (Thailand) is UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Democratic People�s Republic of Korea and professor of Law at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. He co-chaired the experts� meeting which drafted The Yogyakarta Principles, a set of principles on the application of international human rights law in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity. The Principles affirm binding international legal standards with which all States must comply.

http://www.yogyakartaprinciples.org/

Sayoni was able to help out by facilitating the women’s caucus on the first day and learned a lot from the women sharing about their views on various issues pertaining to the personal, community and the world at large. Subsequent days were followed by sessions on transgender issues, laws, rights, HIV, country focus issues, women issues, etc.

A gay pride parade was also held on the third day (Saturday) of the conference that marched from the Puttastan Buddhist Centre to the Night Bazaar / Pantip Plaza. The first in Chiangmai, it was greeted with curiosity from the locals, delight by tourists and participation by some who wanted to show their support.

Sayoni would like to thank Myo, Mira, Chiang Mai based LGBT groups, The Committee on Lesbigay Rights in Burma (CLRB) and M-Plus for organizing the conference on the ground.

I watched I Can’t Think Straight with high hopes and anticipation. The trailer was certainly enticing, and so was the possibility of watching Lisa Ray (whom I was drooling over, since her role in Water) in some girl-on-girl action.

I have to say, I wasn’t too disappointed. I Can’t Think Straight is precisely the kind of movie we need more – the ones that involve non-white people and happy endings, the lead characters being an Arab Christian (*gasp*, yes they exist) and a Muslim Indian (born and bred in Britain). It can quite easily be called a cross between Imagine Me and You, and Runaway Bride, with a Bend it Like Beckham-ish flavour. The plot is entirely predictable to a fault, and nothing really surprises the average viewer. But I am not complaining, because for years, I’ve been complaining that we do not have enough happy ending gay movies.

Lisa Ray and Sheetal Sheth are reasonably good actresses – though there are no Oscar-worthy moments, they are entirely believable in the chemistry between them. After all, one look from Lisa Ray’s smouldering green eyes could turn the straightest girl gay. The sex scenes between them are definitely hot – and as a plus, we get two of them!

The writing is average, and laugh-at-loud funny at many points – however, I am not sure whether it is due to the writing or direction, but at some times, the movie is just simply clunky. It might have something to do with the fact that this was a print-to-screen transference, where the fluidity of the script was lost on the cutting room floor.

Overall, the movie sends a very positive message. A friend of mine, while watching it, complained that there wasn’t enough character-development and building up of the chemistry, but I disagree. After all, it is TV. Harry and Sally didn’t spend months dating and talking before they got together (that we saw on TV), and neither did Ian and Maggie (they decided to get married after their first kiss, for god’s sake). The film does not win points for realism. In real life, the coming out to a Indian Muslim family, or an Arab Christian family for that matter, would be met by a hell of a lot more problems and backlash. But this is entirely fine in my opinion, because I am sure Harry and Sally did not live happily ever together anyway.

It is most definitely worth watching if you can get your hands on it.

We thank Regent Releasing for allowing us access to a screener of the movie for review purposes.

The New Straits Times Online carries an article “Why do you want to hurt me?” discussing homophobia in Malaysia. We are happy that this issue is being openly addressed in our sister country, particularly in the light of it being an Islamic country (according to its leaders, though not officially), and in the light of official homophobic positions (Anwar being prosecuted for sodomy, and official fatwas against the community)

Sayoni is proud of Anj Ho who gave the talk on homophobia in the Seksualiti Merdeka conference in August 2008. You can read more about what she shared on homophobia in the article.

So we all had high hopes. We all stayed glued to our screens, crying with joy about the best thing that ever happened to network television lesbian representation: Callie and Erica on Grey’s Anatomy.

But it was not to be. Season 5 started airing in September, and though yes, I have been too busy to give updates on the sexciting happenings on Grey’s [let's just drop the pretense we care about Meredith or Cristina or Bailey], I have been following the series along with that other show, Heroes [until the plotline started completely irritating me and I decided to give up].

Callie and Erica did eventually get it on after their hot kiss at the end of Season 4 – for detailed recaps on what happened, check AfterEllen. After the traditional gay panic, the even more traditional lets-take-it-slow dating which ended up in a fast beeline to the bed, Erica figuring out she is soooo gay, Callie figuring out she is bisexual, not lesbian by testing theories with Sloane… it all ended in a big what in the name of Sappho when Erica simply walked away from Callie over a silly argument over who got Denny’s heart and Grey Areas.

Devoted fans knew a week before the episode was released, that Brooke Smiths, who plays Erica was fired by ABC for some reason. No one knows why in the name of Sappho’s U-haul this happened, and why Brooke Smiths had to be fired, instead of them just breaking up and keeping the character of Erica on the show. Even GLAAD is taking Shonda’s side on this, and they are blaming it all on bad chemistry.

Pfft. It would be a little more believable had we not been hearing rumours that Melissa George was coming to the show as a bisexual intern, but that was quickly thrown in the can about the same time as Brooke Smiths was fired.

And here I was, so happy, so proud, that network television was going where no man (or woman) had gone before, in rather bravely portraying queer characters [remember last season? Remember the hot gay soldier kiss? Remember Joe the bartender? What happened to him anyway, after becoming a twin daddy?]. And here it is, all broken. *sobs*

Many queer folks who were already long-time fans of Grey’s, or those who jumped on the wagon after Callica [ie, the shipper term for Callie and Erica] have taken to boycotting the show. Jump off the wagon all you want, I’m riding this to the end to see what happens to Callie, at least. And not just because Sara Ramirez is hot [that gigawatt smile and the curves and the boobs... need I say more?]. And ABC, I love you, I love most of your other productions, but since you decided to stop giving us airtime, I will have to do the same for you on this space which was generously given to you, on the dime of the people who pay for the hosting of Sayoni.

Goodbye, Callica… we’ll miss you!

In a further development of the story we published on the orchard towers “hate crime”, the remaining three assailants, the ones who started the assault on the victim Suhaimi, have been sentenced by a district judge.

Greater role, so trio get jail

Trio in the dock had each either punched or kicked victim on the head

Teo Xuanwei

xuanwei@mediacorp.com.sg

ALL six friends were involved in the brawl outside an Orchard Towers pub last November, but a district judge ruled yesterday that three of them had played greater roles in the fatal assault.

For that, a district judge sentenced Mr Muhammad Sufian Zainal, 21, and Mr Helmi Abdul Rahim, 20, each to four years' jail and six strokes of the cane. Mr Ahmad Nur Helmy Ahmad Hamdan, 20, was given four-and-a-half years in jail and eight strokes of the cane.

The fracas that took place in the wee hours of Nov 23 was sparked off after the victim, Mr Suhaimi Sulong, 37, approached a few of the youths- all gang members- outside Brown Sugar pub and made lewd comments and offered sexual services, court documents said. Enraged, some confronted Mr Suhaimi.

Yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Samuel Chua told the court that Mr Ahmad Nur Helmy was most culpable as he had thrown the first punch that led to his peers raining blows on Mr Suhaimi.

Mr Suhaimi died an hour after the beating and the trio in the dock had each either punched or kicked him on the head.

Mr Ahmad Nur Helmy's lawyer argued that it was virtually impossible to describe the actual role of each of the offenders, the nature and the extent of their involvement in a group attack.

He appealed for his client to be imposed with the same punishment as his accomplices got last week: Mr Muhammad Ridhwan Mohd Roslan, 20, Lai Chee Kuen, 17, and Mr Ho Ching Boon, 18, were sent to the reformative training centre.

But DPP Chua said that it was because those three youths had played lesser roles in the 'heinous offence'. Reformative training for the three men sentenced yesterday was inadequate because the principle of deterrence should feature more strongly than the principle of rehabilitation, given their roles in the incident.

For voluntarily causing grievous hurt, each of the trio could have been jailed up to seven years, in addition to a fine or caning.

We are satisfied that the offence is being treated with the gravity it should be, but it would have been apropos to emphasise that it is not acceptable for people to hurt each other based on strong prejudicial feelings.

It is good news and bad news today – in the good news, Barrack Obama was elected President of the United States.

In the bad news, three states – Arizona, California and Florida, have voted to pass a constitutional amendment that defines “marriage as being between a man and a woman” only.

The most upsetting of these setbacks, was in the state of California, where Proposition 8 was defeated by a margin of 4% [with 95% of precints reporting in]. At the time of publication, it does not look likely that Proposition 8 will be defeated, and hence, we have to accept the cold hard reality that one of the largest, and supposedly liberal states in America has decided that people like us do not deserve equal rights. [Click here for updates]

Now, readers are inclined to ask: how is this related to us? We do not live in America, for this to really affect us. However, this is likely to have repercussions in both America and abroad, in the march towards progress. After the court case that allowed same-sex couples to get married, this step backwards is a big blow to equal rights. Even though domestic partnerships are still allowed, they are not the same as marriage, and does not confer many of the important rights that come with marriage.

Here’s us hoping that in the years to come, the constitutional amendment will be overturned, though it is so much harder to do.

Sayoni proudly presents Sayoni Queer Women Survey 2008 Report (Singapore) – administered on lesbian, queer, bisexual and transgendered women living in Singapore.

Abstract

Objectives:

1.To gain some perspective on the actual needs of queer women, and what we can do about them

2.To provide free and accessible information to researchers, and act as a starting point for further research into the field

3.To ameliorate the dire lack of information on queer women in Singapore. Currently, there is no proper understanding of how the women�s queer community functions, other than biased and disjointed personal views.

The survey is broken down into five main aspects. Questions in each category are stream-lined and standardised for easy answering, by presenting most of the questions as rating questions where possible.

1. Introduction

General background.

2. Family, Friends and Work

Questions on how out the respondent is in their various social circles, how this group has reacted to the information, and the respondent�s intention to come out to that particular group.

3. Personal

Questions on a personal level relating to sexual orientation. Probes how the respondents come to realise their sexuality, different aspects of personal identity, and how their sexuality has affected them. Also includes information on relationships of respondents.

4. Financial

Questions to ascertain the financial status of queer women as a community – on income, occupation and industry, housing and car ownership.

5. Feedback on Sayoni and the community

Take note that the answers to these questions with the exception of two, are not presented in this report as they are meant for internal feedback.

This survey was not carried out with a null hypothesis in mind, and much of the information contained in this report is� processed descriptive statistics. Where possible, averages and trends have been pre-computed, and presented along with a broad analysis of the data. This� year, the data is presented in a much more visual format, as opposed to raw numbers in the
pilot run of 2006.

In the report of 2006, the data was broken down across Age, Ethnicity and Religion, as it is believed that these three different aspects affect the average queer woman in her views and social situation with respect to her sexuality. This year, due to the significant changes in methodology and presentation, we have decided to omit the comparison by Ethnicity and� Religion, as the representation for minority ethnic groups is not high enough to allow accurate comparisons.

This news was reported in the Straits Times.

3 others in Orchard Towers brawl will be sentenced Nov 6
By Sujin Thomas

BIRTHDAY party celebrations at an Orchard Towers pub last November turned ugly when six men ended up beating another to death.

After he was assaulted in the early hours of Nov 23, Suhaimi Sulong, 37, was taken unconscious to the Singapore General Hospital.

He died an hour later from head and neck injuries.

Yesterday, three of his attackers – Muhammad Ridhwan Mohd Roslan, 20, Ho Ching Boon, 17, and Lai Chee Kuen, 17 – were sent to the reformative training centre.

There, younger offenders are confined for between 18 months and three years and put through a tough regimen of foot drills, counselling, education and vocational training.

The packed courtroom was filled with teary eyed family members of the three men.

The remaining three in the dock – Muhammad Sufian Zainal, 21, Ahmad Nur Helmy Ahmad Hamdan, 20, and Helmi Abdul Rahim, 28 – will be sentenced on Nov 6.

According to court documents, the six had gone to the Brown Sugar pub on the second floor of Orchard Towers on the evening of Nov 22 to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

A few hours later, Lai and Ho left the pub briefly and were approached by Suhaimi, who asked them if they wanted oral sex. Both men declined.

Later, while Ahmad was combing his hair in a toilet, Suhaimi approached him with the same question. Ahmad responded with a hailstorm of vulgarities in Malay.

A few minutes later, he caught up with Suhaimi and asked if he was a homosexual. He was by then with Muhammad Sufian, Ho and Lai.

When Suhaimi ignored him, Ahmad punched him in the face till he fell onto the floor. Muhammad Sufian restrained Ahmad and helped Suhaimi up onto his feet.

As Suhaimi ran down the staircase, Ahmad again shouted vulgarities at him.

This time, Suhaimi stopped in his tracks and stared at Ahmad.

It would cost him his life.

Ahmad chased him down the staircase with Muhammad Sufian in tow. Meanwhile, Suhaimi had made a run for it, reaching the ground floor before Muhammad Sufian, who had earlier helped him, kicked him in the back.

Suhaimi fell to the ground and was kicked and punched by Ahmad, Muhammad Sufian, Ho and Lai.

Muhammad Ridhwan and Helmi, who were bystanders, also joined in.

The men stopped only when a taxi driver shouted at them. Later, he also called the police. By then, Suhaimi was unconscious.
The six men were subsequently arrested.

There has never been a reported hate crime in Singapore – not that it has not occurred before, just that it has been only whispered quietly between friends.