With whiter teeth and longer hair.

xx

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A secret squirrel at City Hall has told us that the Mayor’s press team declined requests for Boris Johnson to speak at this year’s London Pride event in Trafalgar Square for fear of jeering by Pride party-goers.

The squirrel, who can’t be named, told HOMOVISION over a cuppateano in Soho that although Boris was invited to address the crowd earlier this year, the press team felt a negative reaction would turn into a PR disaster.

Instead Boris will be walking at the head of the parade. Hopefully this time without a pink hat. Howexcitement!

It’s all kicking off for the gays in London. Last Saturday saw the sixth annual Clapham Street Party, closely followed by this week’s Pride. The infamous Muscle Marys are going to be out in force, donning their finest Abercombie and Fitch and swigging their (low calorie) drinks of choice. The streets will be a mass of glistening biceps, bronzed abs and plenty of bravado. Dotted amongst the hotties you’ll also find the usual Brazilian beauties in their Manhunt vests handing out shots, urging you to flock to an online sexual nirvana where fantasies will fast become a reality.

It’s precisely this tribal mentality of the gay scene that Lachlan Phillpott’s play Bison dissects in uncompromising detail. Raw and in your face this short, one act piece focuses on four gay men as they navigate their way through a lifestyle that consumes and threatens to destroy them.

This is not a conventional drama. There is no linear plot structure and little interaction between the characters. It focuses instead on the individual struggles of the four men and the problems they face as they try to fathom some kind of existence for themselves. Each man is at a different point in his life. Jason is fresh faced and 17, Tom is a 29 year old traveller and Simon a 32 year old obnoxious sexual adventurer. Finally there is Richard, a cynical 48 year old who despite his years on the scene has still failed to find a modicum of solace.

The themes though are universal and will send shudders of recognition through the audience. It’s set against an almost nightmarish backdrop of sex, drugs, online hook-ups and chronically low self esteem and makes for often uncomfortable viewing. Phillpott counterpoints moments of breathtaking tenderness and sadness with episodes of horrific brutality and callousness. Yet there is nothing forced in his technique and he couches his observations in a light, assured touch, using blistering humour to make even the darkest behaviour strangely understandable.

All of the performances are excellent and perfectly pitched. As Tom, Jonny McMillen-Patterson delivers melancholic monologues in a deliciously lilting voice as he describes his travels in a gay world where no matter what the city the experiences are similarly hollow. Christopher Sutton is compelling as Simon whose pretentious exterior hides a gaping heart seeking recognition and escape through abusive sex.

It is difficult to isolate one standout performance, but the young Matthew Cavan as Jason is heartbreaking as we look on helplessly as his innocent childhood crush leads him on an inexorable journey into the gay underworld of addictive self destruction. With every doomed, meaningless encounter he appears to shed some of his youthful sensitivity. It is painful to watch, but a familiar situation that Phillpott seems to suggest is an inevitability of gay urban life.

Phillpott began writing the piece a decade ago in Australia and it has been rewritten and carefully researched since to depict subsequent changes in the gay subculture. The most alarming of these has been the rise of HIV amongst gay men – a topic that has been fiercely debated over the last few years in London alone. More disturbing than the references to bare-backing here though is the lack of care, love and community that seem to be intricately linked with the trend.

Perhaps the jaded Richard best sums this up as he looks at Jason and gestures around a club before wryly remarking that this alone does not symbolise a community. The words are spoken early on in the play but reverberate in our ears as we leave the auditorium and ask ourselves what our gay forefathers sacrificed so much for. It’s a question that should be in all of our minds as we gather to celebrate our identities over the next few weeks. The time has come to stop taking things for granted and strive for some self respect.

Peter’s Dance Boat Party Pre-Pride Cruise (or something like that), launches from Temple Pier, Victoria Embankment this Friday in order to raise funds for Peter’s war chest to promote human rights, democracy, LGBT freedom and justice around the world.

Internationally renowned dj’s Wayne G, Qboy & Jeffrey Hinton will be providing the disco, while special guests David Hoyle, Mz Kimberley and the Fabulous Russella will be on hand to help you party (which basically means they’ll be getting plastered). St Peter will be there too performing an extra special cabaret performance with Legs Electric. OK we made the last bit up.

Seriously though – this is the only Pride party that we, as HOMOVISION, think is worth while. Unlike everything else which just seems like great marketing opportunities for London bars and clubs to rake in the profits while we all piss our money down the drain tbh. Anyways, a video:

Dance party boat departs 8.30pm, Temple Pier, Victoria Embankment, London WC2R 2PN
Boat returns to Temple Pier at 12.30am
Tickets: £25.
Tickets are available at the boat on the night.
Or you can book tickets in advance here.

Syria has in the last two years improved its treatment of its LGBT citizens, as compared to the period we have been monitoring 2003-2007. In what follows we outline a very short description of the reality of LGBT communities, in the period mentioned above, then briefly discuss attitude of the government to HIV/AIDS and detect current trends and development. We conclude with recommendations for the Syrian government. GME was very pleased to discern this more positive trend but all the more disappointed with the recent turn of events. In the last few months Syria has began clamping down on gay men, is this an apparent reversal of its policy? We call upon Syria to continue and reform its laws, like its neighbours to the north (Turkey) and south (Jordan), in abolishing anti-LGBT articles from its penal code. This will increase safety and resolve problems that Syrian authorities even indirectly admit they face, let alone alleviate the suffering of its LGBT citizens.

The reality of LGBT repression in Syria 2003-2007

Article 520 of the Syrian penal code of 1949, prohibits having homosexual relations, i.e. “carnal relations against the order of nature”, and provides for up to three-years imprisonment. In 2005 a Syrian gay man wrote to globalgayz.com stating “”It must be told about the suffering of Syrian gays… The only mention of homosexuality is as a disease and a perverse illness.” He added that “many gays have been arrested and are now in Syrian prisons.” However this was never reported in the state controlled media and few inside or outside Syria were aware of reality. Thanks to a handful of sites, mostly GME and Globalgayz.com some stories have managed to be published and given a space to be aired. However, people who reported to GME seemed to have been all too often targeted by the authorities and sometimes disappeared without a trace. Nevertheless we did manage to get some good idea of what means to be gay in Syria during this period.

Another writer to globalgayz.com described this reality :”… gay life must be very secret in Syria and dangerous when the police or neighbor or relative or Muslims fanatic discovers you, especially now after many terrorist organizations were discovered in Syria such a sham army and Muslims fanatics. Some gays are afraid of meeting in the street or restaurant or cinema or Turkish bath in Damascus or Aleppo or Hama or Homs Lattaquia. All Syrian cities are not safe areas for gays. “The syrian police look for gays to arrest them. After the arrest, they lead them for medical test using outdated methods to prove you had anal sex; they do it with fingers and put a special thing in the ass (the same instrument a doctor uses when you have problem in your ass). I knew many gay were arrested and examined for that reason gay always are afraid to be discovered by such shameful methods. … They have a special military court that can condemn gays to 3 years or more of prison. All gays in Syria have pressure from theirs family to marry.”With regards to HIV and AIDS, the writer added that the “government doesn’t have any social or medical help for gays nor do they give any information about HIV or AIDS.“

From 2003-2007 GME as well as Globalgayz.com have received many such complaints and anecdotes that the Syrian Secret Service often used sexual orientation to harass and manipulate members of the LGBT Syrian communities.

HIV and AIDS Prevention

As mentioned previously this repression complicates the ability to transmit information about safer sex in the various LGBT communities throughout Syria. The authorities seems to be completely hostile to such an idea. In 2005, the Syrian Deputy Minister of Religious Endowments, Muhammad Abd Al-Sattar Al-Sayyid, stated on the national Syrian TV that “If only we had stoned everyone who had committed this abomination,“ which he defines as fornificators, homosexuals and other sexual deviants, would’nt it be a better method “than letting these diseases infect others, spreading to millions around the world?”Indeed many religious organisations echo this call, while official medical and psychological texts still regard homosexuality as hormonal or a psychological disorder.

At the same time HIV/AIDS awareness have been integrated into secondary school curricula in Syria, and there are medical centres where testing for HIV can be made. However with such a hostile attitude from the authorities towards LGBT sexuality, the safety and well being of gays in Syria is seriously compromised. Fear of being exposed and arrested or abused prevents many gays seek or obtain information on safer sex practice, and the social stigma that is propagated by the Syrian government undermines the good work of the Syrian Ministry of Health HIV/AIDS campaigns along with organisations such as UNICEF.

Recent developments in Syria

To our relief, some gays have been reporting that harassment levels have been easing in the last two years; a gay Syrian reported to GME in late 2009 that he has been told by a Secret Police office “as long as you don’t ask for political rights or be public about your sexuality, you can do whatever you want.” The situation seems to have thus, marginally improved in the last two years (2007-2009). During this period, gay and lesbians were occasionally harassed or even imprisoned (one notable exception was the case of an asylum seeker to the UK), but the majority, if they behaved very cautiously and did not come out or demanded rights were left alone with minor harassment. During this period it has been reported that discreet cruising in various localities around Syria was just about tolerated and at the same time monitored by the secret police. AFP even reported rather euphorically stated that “Syrian gays edge gingerly out of the closet”, although that really seemed to the editorial team of GME a bit exaggerated and not confirmed by the testimonials we have received.

The increase of accessibility to the internet for Syrians, albeit under very strict control, has enabled many gays and lesbians for the first time to communicate, network and develop a nascent self-consciousness. The Syrian authorities seem to have been quick to catch up with this trend. Members of the LGBT Syrian communities now exercise extreme caution when contacting each other or exposing their identity on the web. This is because the Syrian Secret police has now increased their presence on the web and try to intercept gays and lesbians by chatting to them as potential dates or mates. Syria has also moved to block various LGBT related sites and search terms. In the last months GME has received increasing complaints and we have twice reported exclusively in the press on police raids. In recent raids over private parties 25 gay men were arrested as reported by GME today. They are now at least several weeks held under arrest without bail and face a very uncertain future. In other words, in recent months Syrian authorities have been showing worrying signs of increasing repression against LGBT people.

A senior officer handling the police campaign against the 25 gay men mentioned above stated that “Syrian authorities’ major interest is the safety of people, we targeted those parties only because of the increasing rate of drug use, while our presence in those parks and squares is because of the increasing rate of robberies.” We take his words sincerely and point out that for the safety of all, article 520 should be repealed immediately. This would prevent members of LGBT communities throughout Syria from being in dangerous situations in the first place and also enable HIV/AIDS education and prevention which is still an urgent problem. Countries with a Muslim majority like Jordan or Turkey, both neighbours of Syria, that have decriminalised homosexuality have seen the benefits of such an approach which has not upset the religious or moral sensibilities of the population. It, in fact, has enabled the countries to ensure the safety and well being of all their citizens. Surely Syria can benefit from this policy, especially if we take the authorities own words on face value.

You can help by contacting the Syrian Embassy and pointing out the approach the merits of a more liberal approach to homosexuality akin to Syria’s neighbours (Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan). Details: Syrian Embassy, 8 Belgrave Square, London – SW1X 8PH, Tel: 020 7245 9012.

This article first appeared on GayMiddleEast.com.

Private gay parties are not the Syrian authorities only target; they are also raiding cruising areas. Although no arrests have been made to GME’s knowledge, the presence of what is called in Syria “security agents”, commonly known in other parts of the world as the “secret police”, is frightening to gay men who are now avoiding these areas. Interestingly, police men do not approach all men in cruising areas claiming that they only try to investigate “suspicious men”; a term that refers to “gay men”.

The website Gaymiddleeast.com (GME) is following the case against the 25 men. A senior officer handling the police campaign against the gay men in Syria said “Syrian authorities’ major interest is the safety of people, we targeted those parties only because of the increasing rate of drug use, while our presence in those parks and squares is because of the increasing rate of robberies.”

GME is very concerned about the welfare of the 25 men. They call on the Syrian government to free the 25 men and drop all charges against them and secure their safety, in line with the words of the officer, they believe that “the safety of people”, including gay ones, are paramount. Commentators are urging Syria to repeal the antiquated Article 520 of the penal code of 1949, and thus resolve the problem of a need for secret parties and having gays and lesbians safety compromised.

GME contacted the Syrian Embassy in London and Washington regarding this matter. However up to the hour of going to press with the news item they have not received any comment or response from either of the two embassies.

Article first appeared in gaymiddleeast.com

A new poll by CBS News has revealed that 77% of Americans know someone who catches a different bus – that’s an increase of 35% since 1992, when the majority of said they did not.

More than six in ten Americans say they have a close friend, work colleague or relative who is gay or lesbian.

Forty-three percent of Americans currently see homosexual relations between consenting adults as “wrong” – a drop of 19 percentage points from a Gallup poll taken in 1978.

The survey also found that Americans under 30 tended not to object to gayrelations, while those over 65 are likely to disapprove of them.

Read the full poll here.

Executive Producer of Coronation Street, Kieran Roberts, says: “This is going to be one of the best weekends of the year in the city, and we’re honoured that Manchester Pride has allowed us to head up the country’s most glamorous parade. Prepare for Corrie like you’ve never seen it before”.

Jackie Crozier, festival director of Manchester Pride, said: “Coronation Street is a Mancunian institution with a global following and we’re delighted they’re teaming up with Manchester Pride in this, their 50th anniversary year.”

The dudes behind this video wanted to make the point that gays are just like “normal” people. Yawn yawn.

Anyway – it actually works – and was created to keep the “No on 8″ debate in the US active. Everyone on the film did it for charidy also. Which was nice. Shame they didn’t include any popper-spillage fiascos.

Note on Youtube they’ve taken off the ability to make comments, as they know they’re shits.

Angelo Garcia, came out in celebrity-mag TV Notas. In it he says he’s never been in the closet: “I’m very honest about who I am, but I don’t like labels…people need to understand that someone’s sexuality doesn’t make the person. I’m more than that, a son, brother a musician…”

Since leaving the group, Garcia became a solo singer and… a stripper (??!?).

Here’s his best pits bits: