Jozi clubbing: Simply Blue is relaunching
Simply Blue, one of the longest-running gay clubs in Joburg, is relaunching at a new venue on Saturday 28 January. “After so many iconic years in clubbing and entertainment, Simply Blue still believes it has a role to play in the world of entertainment as well as being part of the very limited gay culture […]
Lesedi FM’s Chomane Chomane accused of homophobia
Lesedi FM presenter Chomane Chomane has been accused of making offensive and homophobic comments on his breakfast radio show. Zenny Kgolokwane, from the LGBTI group Free State Rainbow Seeds, heard the remarks on Wednesday during the show’s “Motho mpe motho” (hook me up) segment, in which listeners call in with the hope that they’ll be […]
Municipality bars LGBTI touch rugby club from playing on public grounds in PE
A fledgling LGBTI rugby club in Nelson Mandela Bay has been stopped from playing on municipal-run grounds and has been stonewalled in their efforts to find another public venue. Last Sunday, a meeting of the NMB LGBTI Touch Rugby club ended in frustration and disappointment when five members playing informally at the Donkin Reserve in […]
LGBT businesses contributed $1.7 trillion to the US economy
America’s National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) has for the first time revealed the impact of LGBT-owned businesses in the US – and it’s massive! On Wednesday, the NGLCC released the report America’s LGBT Economy, which explores the types and sizes of LGBT-owned businesses it has certified, the number of jobs they create […]
It’s official! Will & Grace is coming back – Watch the teaser!
The rumours are true! NBC has finally confirmed that a new season of the 16-time Emmy Award-winning Will & Grace is happening, ten years after it ended. Stars Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally will be back in a 10-episode limited run of the iconic show. The new episodes will be broadcast […]
Here’s the Aussie gay-positive ad campaign that’s got Christian homophobes fuming
An Australian advertising campaign for sneakers has got homophobic Christians up in arms because it includes sensual same-sex couples. According to the Volley shoe brand, the #Grassroots campaign is “all about the celebration of sexual expression whilst remembering to stay safe”. “We’re sick of being socially engineered and we shun political correctness,” says the company […]
Unbelievable! Mother murders own son for being gay
A mother in Brazil has confessed to stabbing her gay teenage son to death, apparently because she could not accept his sexuality. The charred body of Itaberli Lozano, 17, was discovered in a cane field near a highway in the state of São Paulo on Saturday. According to local reports, his mother Tatiana Lozano Pereira, […]
Human rights groups welcome Obama’s freeing of Chelsea Manning
President Barack Obama’s decision to commute the sentence of Chelsea Manning, the transgender former army intelligence analyst, has been applauded by human rights groups. Manning, 29, who leaked classified government documents revealing cover ups by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan, was arrested in May 2010 and sentenced to 35 years in prison in […]
Jozi art: A Pile of Stones – How to represent the horror without re-inscribing it?
After seeing ISIS propaganda footage of gay men thrown from rooftops in Syria and Iraq and then publicly stoned, artist Clive van den Berg needed to “make good” these violated lives. In A Pile of Stones, van den Berg exercises this reparative impulse, composing a body of work that protests against the actions of ISIS […]
Malawi court to decide if politician can call for gays to be murdered
A leading Malawian politician will appear in the High Court this week to find out if he should be prosecuted for calling for the killing of gay people. In January last year, Ken Msonda, spokesperson for Malawi’s former ruling People’s Party, wrote on Facebook that arresting gays and lesbians would not work and that “the […]