Review: Midnight's Children
The long-awaited film version of Salman Rushdie’s epic novel Midnight’s Children arrives in the UK this month. Directed by Oscar-nominated Indian-Canadian Deepa Mehta and with a screenplay by Rushdie, the film was always going to struggle to live up to the success – and scope – of the book. The story is grand both geographically and historically, taking viewers to different parts of India and Pakistan and jumping through different historical periods such as partition, the India-Pakistan war and India’s state of emergency.
Pink Shark pressies!
Are you looking for some last-minute gift ideas for Christmas? Launched in September 2012, The Pink Shark is a gay-friendly online retailer that sells a range of cute and quirky cards and gifts. The brand has recently added a new selection of goods to its range, including a number of Christmas cards for gay couples and same-sex families, children and baby presents that features same-sex family images and stories, and novelty gifts and presents for special occasions – such as civil partnerships.
Equal marriage: consultation results announced
The Government has today announced the results of its consultation on same-sex marriage in England and Wales. The 13-week consultation took place in early 2012. It received a record 228,000 individual responses, as well as a number of petitions. More than half of individual respondents (53 per cent) favoured the introduction of equal marriage.The Culture Secretary, Maria Miller, announced the consultation results in a busy Parliamentary session, and said that legislation allowing same-sex marriage will be brought forward next year.
G-A-Y Bar offers HIV testing
Tomorrow (1 December) is World AIDS Day, and once again, London’s G-A-Y Bar (on Old Compton Street, Soho), will be hosting HIV testing in conjunction with the team from sexual health clinic, 56 Dean Street. Once again, they will be trying to break the record for the most number of people tested in an eight-hour period. Last year, 467 individuals were tested, and this year the team are looking to better that number.
Poet McCullough wins Polari Prize
John McCullough has become the second person to win the Polari First Book Prize. His win, with his book The Frost Fairs, was announced at the fifth birthday party of the gay literary salon, Polari – which meets monthly at the Southbank in London. The Polari First Book Prize was launched by organisars of Polari in 2011 to reward "a first book which explores the LGBT experience and is open to any work of poetry, prose, fiction or non-fiction published in the UK in English within the twelve months of the deadline for submissions".
National HIV Testing Week
World AIDS Day falls on 1 December, and as part of its World AIDS Day activities, the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) is promoting its first ever National HIV Testing Week – running from today (23 November) through to 1 December. Funded by the Department of Health, the week aims to encourage communities at an increased risk of infection (gay men and Africans) to test more regularly for the virus. A number of events are already planned across England during the week, targeting people most at risk of HIV.
