Beijing 2008

The event that is probably dominating the media at the moment is the Olympics in Beijing. Like millions of other people around the globe, I watched the opening ceremony last Friday. The opening drums and the ceremony as a whole was incredibly impressive. But then, as journalist Ann Lesley pointed out at the weekend, so was the 1936 Olympics. GayNZ reported last week that the Olympics had actually brought masses of new restrictions for gay men and lesbians in China and drew on a Gay Times piece from last year. Inspired by the site I took a look at some sites that provide cruising and sauna listings. There does indeed seem to be a new restrictive tone with venues closed or changed. One comment would have been funny if it wasn't so sinister. A guy went to a sauna he'd been to many times before, hidden down an ally. He went in, the staff were the same staff and smiled in their usual way. Only now the venue had become a karaoke venue and people played cards. The sex beds had vanished and the showers removed.

Watch that video again - impressive outward looking event or terrifying image of a totalitarian state, 2008 drummers working as one? You decide.

Texas Sex Toy Ban Defeated

Back in February I blogged about Lawrence and Garner v Texas decision on a sex toy ban. Well the subject was back in court last week. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has two areas of focus on his web page - killing people and sex. It seems he hates sex and loves killing people. That may be an exaggeration but there do seem a lot of press releases about executions and it is reported that he's just tried to appeal against a decision that prevented him from banning dildos, vibrators and a host of other sex toys. He attempted to overturn the previous Lawrence decision and ensure there was a ban on sex toys. Luckily for the million of Texans who were desperately thinking of a hiding place for their deluxe rabbit, they don't have to because the AG was defeated. Take a look at the judgment here.

Homophobic Bullying

Whilst the last post focused upon tensions in Manchester, a news story on Pink News focuses on London and the decision by Boris Johnson to cut funding to Soho-Pride and re-direct that funding to tackling homophobic bullying in schools. I'm not an expert on London events but it does seem that Bo-Jo may have got it right and given the choice between community projects and a good party, community projects should be the priority.

Revisiting Community Tensions

Last year I blogged about community tensions in the run up to Pride. Most Pride events have arguments and tensions but the one surrounding Manchester cut to the core of modern activism - who is pride for. Some voluntary groups complained that the price of stalls meant they simply couldn't afford to participate in pride and due to the costs of the armbands, nor could many of the people they want to reach out to. It was an argument that I thought had value then and David Henry (who you see in the original Channel M video) has now commented that the same issues persist this year. Queer Youth Network TV have produced a video that highlights some of the issues. The sound is a bit dodgy in places but the message is an important one.