Utopia is a website with daily updating of information about LGBT culture in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region.
Utopia, founded by American John C. Goss, was a ground-breaking Internet enterprise when it was formed in Bangkok, Thailand, on December 13, 1995. At the time of its launch, such information was hard to come by, even for LGBT citizens within their own nations. Since then, it has pioneered new businesses, published seminal books and forged relationships to emerge as a potent unifying force for AsianLGBT people.
The Utopia website was preceded by the opening of Southeast Asia's first gay and lesbian center, one year earlier, in December 2004. Goss and partners from Singapore, Thailand and the United States opened the Utopia complex in the Sukhumvit Road area of Bangkok and it included an LGBT bookshop, cafe, pub and guesthouse. The center went on to host author readings, women's workshops, AIDS/HIV education and fundraising, and Bangkok's first International Lesbian and Gay Film/Video Festival: Hearts of Light, programmed by Canadian filmmaker, Paul Lee.
The Utopia website was the first Internet portal providing up-to-date pan-Asian information in a non-pornographic format. An archive of the Utopia website is available from 1996 onwards at The Wayback Machine. The website went on to garner recognition from TIME Magazine, Lonely Planet, Yahoo!, Gay Times, Advocate and BBC World Service.
Utopia was a founding sponsor of the first Bangkok Gay Festival in 1999, the first Pattaya Gay Festival in 2001, and also sponsored the annual Phuket Gay Festival.
The annual Utopia Awards was established in 2000 to give special recognition to gay and lesbian pioneers in Asia and other worthy groups and individuals who have made outstanding contributions to Asia's LGBT community.
In 2005–2007, Goss began publication of ten landmark Utopia Guide books to gay and lesbian life in China; Cambodia/Laos/Myanmar/Vietnam; Thailand; Singapore; Malaysia; Indonesia; Japan; South Korea; Taiwan; and Asia (16 countries).
Utopia continues to pursue its original goal to improve the lives of Asian lesbians and gay men, to build community, and to foster a deeper understanding of gay life in the region. The Utopia website remains the Internet's most respected and comprehensive English-language resource for the multi-faceted homosexual subcultures of Asia.
Shinjuku Ni-chōme (新宿二丁目), referred to colloquially as Ni-chōme or simply Nichō, is Area 2 in the Shinjuku District of the Shinjuku Special Ward of Tokyo, Japan. With Tokyo home to 13 million people, and Shinjuku known as the noisiest and most crowded of its 23 special wards, Ni-chōme further distinguishes itself as Tokyo's hub of gay subculture, housing the world's highest concentration of gay bars.
LGBT tourism is a form of tourism marketed to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. People might be open about their sexual orientation and gender identity at times, but less so in areas known for violence against LGBT people.
Alex Au Waipang, also known by his Internet nom de plume as Yawning Bread, is an advocate of LGBT rights in Singapore. Au is a blogger and activist who provides analyses of Singaporean politics, culture, gay issues and miscellaneous subjects on his blog. He is also the co-author of two books, People Like Us: Sexual Minorities in Singapore and a French-language treatise on homophobia entitled L'Homophobie.
There are no statistics on how many LGBT people there are in Singapore or what percentage of the population they constitute. Section 377A of the Penal Code criminalises sexual acts between men, including consensual and private activities, though it is unenforced. Sexual acts between women are legal.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons in Belarus face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female same-sex sexual activity are legal in Belarus. Households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex couples. Belarus provides no anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people, nor does it prohibit hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity
Singapore's first public LGBT pride festival, IndigNation, took place during the month of August in 2005, with a second annual IndigNation in August 2006. Previous gay celebrations, exemplified by the Nation parties held annually in Singapore since 2001, were private commercial events held for LGBT recreation, but were also socio-political statements of significance in Singapore gay history and milestones in Singapore's human rights record.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Thailand face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female same-sex sexual activity are legal in Thailand, but same-sex couples and households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex couples. About eight percent of the Thai population, five million people, are thought to be in the LGBT demographic.
People Like Us (PLU) (Chinese:我等之辈) is a gay equality lobby group in Singapore. Having been twice rejected by the government board which approves or prohibits organisations, the Registrar of Societies, it is now in its third incarnation as "PLU3". The term "PLU" has also gradually become slang for "homosexual" amongst members of Singapore's and Malaysia's gay subculture.
John C. Goss is an American artist and author and has lived most of his life in the Asia/Pacific region.
New Zealand society is generally accepting of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) peoples. The LGBT-friendly environment is epitomised by the fact that there are several members of Parliament who belong to the LGBT community, LGBT rights are protected by the Human Rights Act, and same-sex couples are able to marry as of 2013. Sex between men was decriminalised in 1986. New Zealand has an active LGBT community, with well-attended annual gay pride festivals in most cities.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Asia are limited in comparison to many other areas of the world. Same-sex sexual activity is outlawed in at least twenty Asian countries. While at least eight countries have enacted protections for LGBT people, only Israel, Cyprus and Taiwan provide a wider range of LGBT rights – including same-sex relationship recognition. In Afghanistan, Brunei, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen homosexual activity is punished with the death penalty. In addition, LGBT people also face extrajudicial executions from non-state actors such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Egalitarian relationships modeled on the Western pattern have become more frequent, though they remain rare. As of 2021, only Taiwan, the British Overseas Territories of Akrotiri and Dhekelia the British Indian Ocean Territory, and certain cities in Israel have legalized same-sex marriage.
Seattle Pride refers to a series of events which are held annually in late June to celebrate LGBT Pride in Seattle, Washington.
The modern South Korean LGBT rights movement arose in the 1990s, with several small organizations seeking to combat sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination.
This is a timeline of notable events in the history of non-heterosexual conforming people of South Asian ancestry, who may identify as LGBTIQGNC, men who have sex with men, or related culturally-specific identities such as Hijra, Aravani, Thirunangaigal, Khwajasara, Kothi, Thirunambigal, Jogappa, Jogatha, or Shiva Shakti. The recorded history traces back at least two millennia.
Anjaree was a LGBT rights organization in Thailand. It formed as a lesbian organization in 1986 and has focused on issues such as reforming the words used to refer to same sex desire and campaigning for same sex marriage to be legally recognised. It became dormant around 2011.
The LGBT community in Metro Detroit is centered in Ferndale, Michigan, as of 2007. As of 1997, many LGBT people live in Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge, and Royal Oak. Model D stated in 2007 that there are populations of gays and lesbians in some Detroit neighborhoods such as East English Village, Indian Village, Lafayette Park, and Woodbridge and that the concentration of gay bars in Detroit is "decentralized".
Chicago has long had a gay neighborhood. Beginning in the 1920s there was active homosexual nightlife in Towertown, adjacent to the Water Tower. Increasing rents forced gay-friendly establishments steadily northwards, moving through Old Town and Lincoln Park along Clark Street and on to Boys Town. Boys Town presently serves as the best-known Chicago gayborhood, and the center of its LGBT culture. Gentrification has pushed many gay and lesbian people to reside ever further north into Uptown, Edgewater and Rogers Park.
This is a timeline of notable events in the history of non-heterosexual conforming people of Asian and Pacific Islander ancestry, who may identify as LGBTIQGNC, men who have sex with men, or related culturally-specific identities. This timeline includes events both in Asia and the Pacific Islands and in the global Asian and Pacific Islander diaspora, as the histories are very deeply linked.
Bangkok Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (BGLFF) was established by the staff of 'Attitude Magazine', an LGBT weekly publication from Bangkok in Thailand, in 2015. The magazine, which began publishing in 2011, is the first in Thailand to specifically address the interests of the country's LGBT community, and to seek to represent LGBT views in wider Thai society.
Miami has one of the largest and most prominent LGBTQ communities in the United States. Miami has had a gay nightlife scene as early as the 1930s. Miami has a current status as a gay mecca that attracts more than 1 million LGBT visitors a year. The Miami area as a whole has been gay-friendly for decades and is one of the few places where the LGBTQ community has its own chamber of commerce, the Miami-Dade Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (MDGLCC). As of 2005, Miami was home to an estimated 15,277 self-identifying gay and bisexual individuals. The Miami metropolitan area had an estimated 183,346 self-identifying LGBT residents.
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