More progress in India as the first LGBT pride shop opened in Mumbai. Azaad Bazaar sells a range of items, including mugs, T-shirts, and fashion and home accessories, representing symbols of gay pride in the nation of approximately 1.2 billion inhabitants. From the Hindustan Times: "T-shirts which read Maa Da Ladla [mama's boy] and Your Handcuffs or Mine? also line the shelves, as do leather wrist bands and neck collars with spikes and studs. These are popular among straights and gays, claims partner of the business, Sabina. 'Lots of women have bought our Maa Da Ladla T-shirts for their ...

MUMBAI, India — Pride parades in all metros, the historic Delhi High Court’s verdict on Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, relaunch of India’s first gay magazine Bombay Dost, the Indian Election Commission’s decision to recognize transgender as a separate category…the pink flag is rising over India, queer visibility is increasing. Mainstream Indian cinema too [...] ...

Like India and Pakistan, Bangladesh also its colonial era Indian Penal Code “Section 377″, although it hasn’t been enforced for the last two decades. What is life like for its LGBT communities? With 162 million inhabitants, Bangladesh is the seventh most populous nation in the world. Until 1971, it was “East Pakistan,” until neglect and nationalist pressures trumped religious solidarity with Pakistan to its far west, a thousand miles away. It was hit by famine shortly after its war of independence (1974-5) and then languished under military dictatorship for nearly eleven years (1979-1990). Since then, it has been run by two ...