Guardian: Gaydar sets up China networking site (April 30)

Gaydar sets up China networking site

* Jemima Kiss
* guardian.co.uk,
* Wednesday April 30 2008

This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Wednesday April 30 2008. It was last updated at 13:42 on April 30 2008.

The gay and lesbian media company Gaydar is expanding its empire into China, the world's largest internet market, with a social networking portal that will target a gay population of more than 50 million people.

The new brand GaydarNation China will launch later this year for the gay and lesbian communities across China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia, among what Gaydar describes as a new climate of "tolerance and open-mindedness towards its gay community".

"It is probably nowhere near as free as the UK and others places where legislation has really helped the cause of gay and lesbian people," said a spokeswoman.

"But in the past few years, there have been gay bars and clubs opening in the major cities and even some Pride events starting up."

Gaydar's parent company, QSoft Consulting, is launching the site as a joint venture with the web and mobile media firm GoConnect.

Go Connect has provided support for advertising on Gaydar's Australian website for six years, but will be using their existing relationships and market knowledge of China to set up GaydarNation China.

Web companies publishing inside China have to apply for an "internet content provider" licence from the government, but Gaydar says it can bypass this by hosting the site, with GoConnect, from Australia.

The spokeswoman added, though, that they did not know of any similar service existing in China.

Progress, she explained, included the dropping of homosexuality from the country's mental illnesses register in 2001 and a government health campaign around Aids prevention in the gay community, started earlier this year.

The site will run in partnership with the web and mobile advertising specialists GoConnect, building on a six-year relationship in Australia, where GoConnect provides advertising for Gaydar.com.au.

The first version of the Chinese site will include news, community information, directory listings and a dating service, and will later be expanded with travel and entertainment news.

QSoft, which supports the Sydney Mardi Gras, will also be looking at supporting similar events within China under the new brand.

Guardian: Singapore TV fined for showing gay couple (April 25)

Singapore TV fined for showing gay couple

* Ian MacKinnon, south-east Asia correspondent
* guardian.co.uk,
* Friday April 25 2008

Even as Singapore tries to shed its straight-laced image, one facet of life remains beyond the pale: homosexuality on television.

The city state's government-owned broadcaster was fined £5,500 for airing a lifestyle programme featuring a gay couple with their adopted baby.

The state regulator, the Media Development Authority, said the January 13 episode of the home decor show, Find and Design, "normalises and promotes a gay lifestyle".

It followed the hit programme's host as he helped the gay couple transform their games room into a nursery for their new baby, which was shown in several scenes.

The presenter congratulated them on their "unconventional family setup", a breach of the free-to-air TV Code that bans shows that "promote, justify or glamorise gay lifestyles".

The offence was compounded by the fact that it was aired at 7.30am on a Sunday, deemed inappropriate as it fell within family viewing hours.

It was the second breach of the code by MediaCorp TV. Last year it was fined £1,700 for depicting a kissing scene between two lesbians in the drama series, Without a Trace.

Earlier this month the authority fined cable television operator StarHub £3,500 for screening an advert that showed two women kissing.

Homosexuality is still illegal in Singapore. But in October last year the government declared that private, consensual, adult homosexual sex would no longer be prosecuted.

However, the offence remains on the statute book and anyone convicted of "an act of gross indecency" could face up to two years in jail.

There have few prosecutions for gay sex, though the authorities have banned homosexual festivals and censored films, not wishing to be seen to condone it as a lifestyle choice.

Before 2003, homosexuals were barred from "sensitive positions" in Singapore's civil service, a provision removed by the former prime minister, Goh Chok Tong.