A New Yorker tells his story

Coming up this week on Orange Ribbon is a discussion with Colin, who comes from the United States.

Colin is from New York, and grew up as a member of the Y generation. He will discuss what it is like to be a gay man growing up in America in his generation, and his subsequent move to The Big Apple. He will also share his views on what it is like being a gay man in the New York scene.

So join the Orange Ribbon team this coming Wednesday (11th February) at 7:00pm for another interesting story with an international angle.

This weeks' program (4th Feb. 2009)

Sydney based Sveta is widely known around Australia for her unforgettable and explosive sets at Sydney’s annual Mardi Gras dance party. Sveta is amongst the few underground DJs that have crossed-over to a diverse audience of straight, gay, young, old, queer and fetish audiences.

Sveta is also Russian born and will be with us on Orange Ribbon this Wednesday to talk about her life, her career and music.

A gay Muslim tells his story (28th January, 2009)

Our guest on Orange Ribbon this week is Shah, who was born and raised in Negeri Sembilan in southern Malaysia, as a member of a typical middle-class Muslim family. His father was a school headmaster and his mother was involved in womens politics.

Shah realised by his teenage years that he had feminine traits, and experienced a very difficult time as a result during his first three years of his secondary education at a boarding school, having to deal with criticism and derogatory comments from his peers. His early teenage years were a very unhappy time, resulting in him being moved to another school in order for him to complete his secondary education.

He later studied civil engineering, and then began working in that field, but very quickly realised it was "too butch" a career for him. He will tell us of his decision to change careers, and take out yet another degree, which was the trigger for his move to Melbourne where he completed a computer science degree, and gained some freedom.

But the family pressure was always there into his late 20's regarding an obvious lack of a girlfriend and prospective wife. He will tell us how his Mum offered to help locate a suitable girl, which resulted in a rather interesting scenario. But after another two years he finally decided to "come out" to his family. After the initial tears, his mother decided he needed to be "cured". So she called in a traditional healer, who offered a rather intriguing solution and "cure" for his gayness, which (surprise, surprise...!) did not convert Shah back into a good little straight boy again.

And there is so much more to this story, which Shah will tell us about this coming Wednesday evening (28th January).

Please join Allan at 7:00pm this Wednesday night to hear Shah's story... on this weeks edition of Orange Ribbon.

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And finally...

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To our Chinese friends both here in Australia, and around the world, we wish you all a great and prosperous Year of the Ox.

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So to our Cantonese speakers, Kung Hei Fat Choi.

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Or for our Mandarin speakers...Gong Xi Fa Cai.

Hong Kong update - 21st January, 2009

Reggie Ho was first introduced to Orange Ribbon listeners way back on the 19th December, 2002. On an earlier visit Allan made to Hong Kong in November, 2002, he first met up with Reggie, and Vivian So, who were both volunteers with the Horizons gay & lesbian (or tongzhi) phone counselling service.

Reggie Ho is a Hong Kong based journalist, and long-time gay activist, and has been a contributor to Orange Ribbon on a number of occasions since that first meeting in 2002... always providing a unique slant on Hong Kong gay & lesbian activities, news, and general issues.

However, we have recently realised that it is actually quite some time since we last chatted with Reggie about what is happening in Hong Kong. So this week we decided that we would devote the entire program to Reggie and to Hong Kong GLBT news and issues.

Given his long-standing involvement in the gay scene , and his journalistic experience, Reggie is always able to provide an intriguing and concise "insiders" view on what is happening. So... coming up on Orange Ribbon this week is a complete update on GLBT issues in Hong Kong. Topics that Reggie says he will cover include the following:

• After a few previous smaller attempts over several years, a few weeks ago Hong Kong held its first significant Pride March, with over 1,000 people taking part. Reggie was there, and can tell us a little of this important event.


• There has been a recent review of the Obscene and Indecent Tribunal Ordinance, and Reggie says that there have been some totally ridiculous views and submissions made, that would be laughable if they were not serious.
  
• Gays spread AIDS and abuse children..!!! That's just SOME of the outlandish claims made by some of the 60 religious groups that turned up to a Domestic Violence Ordinance hearing. Reggie says "They have gone nuts and sometimes even comical". He will tell us a little about this.


• Reggie also believes that he can see a rising anti-gay movement beginning to grow in Hong Kong, even though homosexuality was decrimilised way back in 1991. He will tell us why.

All of this will be covered in this weeks Orange Ribbon. So join Aline, Hugh and Allan on Wednesday evening at 7:00pm to hear some of the news from Hong Kong, as well as some of Reggie's views and thoughts on these topics.

Orange Ribbon - Wednesday 14th January

This week on the show we talk to Eng Kim, who originally comes from Johor Bahru in southern Malaysia, which is approximately 30 minutes drive from Singapore.

Eng Kim will tell us about his early life in Malaysia and talk about his education in a Chinese school, religion, and growing up in a middle to upper class family.

Eng Kim came to Australia in his late 20's and immediately started to study. He will talk us through all the different subjects he studied, where and what he studied in Australia and overseas.

He will also talk about when he discovered he was gay, the Sydney and Melbourne gay scene, and how he has not told his family he is gay, even though they all know and accept it.

To hear Eng Kim's story, tune in to Orange Ribbon on Joy 94.9 on Wednesday 14th January at 7.00pm.

Tonight on Orange Ribbon - 7th January, 2009

On tonight's program we talk to Adam, who was born in Poland to German/Polish and Polish/Belarus parents.

Adam's family was involved in the SOLIDARITY political movement in Poland, and so had to leave the country and take refuge in Sweden where he grew up.

In Sweden he was branded the Swedish equivalent of a wog. He had a religious education, and was sent to Polish bible camps.

He dressed differently, ate differently, and generally felt different from everyone else. Then he started to go back to Poland often where they were called "the people from Sweden": so an identity crisis followed!!

On the top of being part of a political and Christian family (his uncles are in the parliament) he also realised he was gay.

Adam later took up drama school, and then came out on a talk show on national television. He backpacked around Asia, moved to Dublin, and then got to university in Melbourne. He met his boyfriend here.

Adam is a big Eurovision fan, and 2 years ago decided to make the annual eurotrash party "ladies only" party and dressed up as a shy polish housewife: Samantha Stretch was born!! Heaps of photos were taken and put them on MySpace and it became a MySpace phenomena, with followings all over the world, and with a fan club in Switzerland.

What a fascinatiung story... and you can hear all about it on Orange Ribbon tonight with Aline, Hugh and Allan... 7:00pm on JOY 94.9FM. Or listen "live" over the internet by going to http://www.joy.org.au/ and click on the "Listen Live" icon at the top of the page.

2008 Retrospective - 31st December, 2008

Yes.. another year has passed, during which Orange Ribbon celebrated our 10th anniversary.

The program was originally started by Kim Benton and Shanton Change around July, 1998, and they were joined by Allan Smales a year later in 1999. Allan is still with the team, but both Kim and Shanton have long since moved on.

But 2008 not only saw the programs' 10th anniversary, but we also had 52 wonderful programs, covering a myriad of topics, people, cultures, nationalities, religions, and sexualities. (Gay, lesbian, bisexula, and transgendered.)

On this weeks program we look back at the year that was, and Allan & Hugh will present some edited highlights from interviews we have done during the year. The program will be spilt up into four major topic areas.
These will be:

1. Religion: How our guests have been influenced, affected, indoctrinated, and otherwise been forced to question their sexuality because of the stringent rules of various religions.


2. War and civil unrest: Some of our guests were not brought up in peaceful civil environments such as we have here in Australia. So we will include a couple of brief excerpts of our guests stories about living in a war zone, or in a country enfdangered by civil unrest.


3. Some funny moments: We are not always serious on Orange Ribbon, and there have been a myriad of funny moments during the year. In this section we will present some funny moments extrtacted from the various 2008 interviews.
   
4. Miscellaneous: This will cover a variety of topics from a guest who had a gangster father, an intercultural couple who have a surrogate son as part of their family, and an HIV Positive chinese guy who has first diagnosed in 1987 at the tender age of 19... plus other topics as well, depending upon how we go for time.

So please join Allan and Hugh this New Years Eve (31st December) from 7pm to hear some of the interview segments you heard (or missed...) earlier in 2008.

And from the Orange Ribbon team... we wish you a happy, peaceful, and prosperous 2009. We thank you for your support during 2008, and hope that you will stay with us during the coming year.

A Canadian white Christmas..? (24th December, 2008)

Yes... a Canadian White Christmas. For most of us here in Australia the entire idea of a white Christmas is more than a little foreign to us, even though we have had the images foisted on us over the years by means of Christmas cards, movies, picture books, Christmas carols etc.

However, on this weeks program (24th December, 2008) Hugh and Allan will be having a discussion with Michael, who is Canadian, and who will be able to describe to we mere mortals what it is really like to be brought up with white Christmases as being a normal part of life.

But the talk won't ALL be about a white Christmas. Michael will also tell us a little about his life in Canada, his family life, parents divorce when he was just two years old, what it was subsequently like growing up in a single-parent family, and why he decided to move to Australia.

Join Hugh and Allan this coming Wednesday evening (yes... it's Christmas Eve...) at 7:00pm to hear Michael's story... on Orange Ribbon... JOY's only multicultural gay & lesbian radio program.

This weeks program - 17th December, 2008

With the recent departure of Ash from the team, and with both Ka Fam and Aline away for the next few weeks on holidays, Allan and Hugh will be running the program for the next three weeks.

And a reminder to all Orange Ribbon listeners... over the past few years we have used the last program of the year to present a retrospective and recap of the years discussions and interviews. For this year, the Orange Ribbon retrospective will be presented on New Years Eve, 31st December. So put it in your diary now... and join Allan and Hugh New on Years Eve (before you go out and celebrate...) for our 2008 retrospective

However, for the more immediate, this coming weeks program (17th December). Allan and Hugh be talking to Somesh who originally comes from India. They will discuss his home life in India and his school-boy dream of moving to Australia to live. He will talk about that ultimate ultimate move, love, happiness, and then getting depressed to the point of almost returning home to India.

So join the team from Orange Ribbon at 7:00pm this coming Wednesday evening (17th December) for another interesting life story.

On tonight's program (10th December, 2008)

Earlier this evening Aline, Hugh and Allan had a phone chat with Dom Agius in London, who recently won a photographic competition run by Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) intended to celebrate Positive Living on World Aids Day earlier this month. Dom is a photographer, DJ, and music producer. He was born in England but spentsome of his childhood in Tanzania, among other places.

He has also spent some time in Melbourne and involved in some exhibitions and DJ work here.





Here is the resulting GSK promotion highlighting Dom's photograph, the subject in the photo being his real-life husband, and partner of 17 years.








In the second half of the program Aline, Hugh and Allan discuss multiculturalism, Orange Ribbon background, history and objectives, and why they are each involved in presenting a weekly gay & lesbian multicultural program. In this segment, suggestions were also invited from listeners for possible future topics of discussion, possible interview candidates, and with the recenty moving on of Ash from the team, even a possible oin-air candidate to assist in putting together the program each week.

If you have suggestions, comments, or other topic ideas, please send them to the team at orangeribbon@joy.org.au

Farewell to Ash

Some sad news... we are losing Ash.

Ash(ish) joined the Orange Ribbon team in 2006 after the program had been in recesss for a year. Both he and Ka Fam were initially trained by Allan, and introduced to program presentation on JOY with a 3-month stint on a Sunday-morning international music program called Launchpad, which ran from June to August, 2006. During this time Allan also introduced Ash to studio panel operations and he soon became a competent studio panel operator as well.

Then at the end of August, 2006, a revamped Orange Ribbon hit the airwaves again, and Ash has been a membert of the team since that date.

However, while Ash has been taking a recent break due to a visit from India by his family, he has now decided to take a break from Orange Ribbon altogether, so we will no longer have him working with us.

Thanks Ash for your work, and good luck for your future plans and activities. We will miss you.

A former Singaporean science teacher this week - 3rd Dec. 2008

In September, 2007, a very popular Singaporean science teacher rocketed to public prominence as a result of him "outing" himself via his internet blog. The furore generated in Singapore as a result of that public outing resulted in him taking down his blog again almost immediately, followed by he and his school being placed under immense stress as the various bigots and religious zealots vented their anger and annoyance.

Otto Fong had been a very popular, yet somewhat unusual, science teacher for another reason. Apart from his fascination with science from a very young age, he was also an extremely competent artist and cartoonist. During his teaching years he started using comics in the classroom to help him in teaching science, and to help make science more interesting and easier to learn for his students. As a result he has published books of comics, and books that teach science using his comic art.

And of course he still maintains his blog, and you can check out his blog for a fascinating read, and to see innumerable examples of his cartooning capabilities.

This week on Orange Ribbon we will be chatting with this wonderfully fascinating former science teacher, who has now taken up comics as a full-time career. Please join Hugh and Allan as they chat with Otto Fong, this coming Wednesday (3rd December) between 7:00-8:00pm on JOY 94.9FM

HIV+ Chinese man on this weeks program (19th Nov. 2008)

Regular listeners to Orange Ribbon will know that I have just spent another month in Hong Kong, having just returned to Melbourne early last week. In fact over the past 21 months I seem to have spent a LOT of time up there (upwards of 6 months spread over about 8-9 visits...), because I love the place, and I also have many wonderful friends who live there, both ex-pats as well as local Chinese.

One of my very good Chinese friends in Hong Kong is Marc. I have been speaking with him for almost a year now (over several of my recent visits...) with a view to having him as a guest on Orange Ribbon. For reasons that will shortly become obvious, I was keen to interview Marc, but I was obviously well aware of the sensitivity of a subject that I wished to discuss with him in any interview I might conduct with him.

After careful consideration over many months, Marc finally sat down with me in Hong Kong last Sunday week to record the interview that I will present on Orange Ribbon this week. I sincerely thank Marc for having the gumption and openness to be interviewed, because he has a story that will provide hope for many others in the same position as himself, and particularly for other Asians who might be in the same position.

Marc is a Hong Kong-born Chinese, from a somewhat unusual family structure, his mother having been married and then divorced in China. She then made the decision to start a new life for herself, so moved south to Hong Kong, re-married, then had Marc and four more siblings, in addition to five half-siblings that had earlier been born in mainland China.

However... at the tender age of 18 years Marc discovered that he was HIV Positive. That was in 1987... which means that he has been living with the virus 21 years now. He openly discusses how this affected his younger adult years, and how his attitude to life changed as time progressed and he realised that perhaps he did not have a "death sentence" after all.

So please join me this coming Wednesday evening (19th November), at 7pm, for this weeks edition of Orange Ribbon. I also hope to include a few music tracks of some recent albums that I picked up in Hong Kong while I was there on this most recent visit.

Allan Smales

This week on Orange Ribbon (12th November, 2008)

On this weeks program we have John with us, an Australian of Greek background. He will share with us a little about being Greek and the Greek culture. And the United We Dance Party is on this coming Sunday and John has all the information about this exciting annual event. That’s not all, he will also be with us to talk about the support and social group, Greek and Gay.

This week on Orange Ribbon - 22nd October, 2008

On last weeks program we were pleased to have Ka Fam return to being a regular on the Orange Ribbon team, after having been away for the past 3 months. And in a couple of weeks Aline will also return to the team again after having spent the past 5 months in Brisbane on a work assignment.

But just as the full team is getting back on board again, Allan is now away in Hong Kong again, and won't be back until mid November.

But the remaining team will continue presenting an interesting multicultural program to you each Wednesday evening.

On this week's program we will be chatting to Jason who is an ex army officer, and who joined the army when it was illegal to be in the armed forces if you were gay. Jason will walk us through his life in the Army, getting married, and then coming out to being gay to his fellow officers in the Army.

Please join us again at 7pm on Wednesday evening for this interesting discussion.

Coming up 1st October program

As per earlier posts in this blog, Allan Smales was in Hong Kong recently, having only returned to Melbourne again three weeks ago.

This weeks program presents the second, of the two interviews that he recorded while he was in Hong kong. Christopher is a Hong Kong-born musician and lyricist, whose band, Tai Chi, had a number of Canto-pop hits in Hong Kong during the 1980's. Christopher talks about the much simpler (and poorer...) Hong Kong of his childhood memories, and his involvement in the Hong Kong music scene of the 1980's where he was a composer and lyricist for the then popular band, Tai Chi. We will even get to play some of his compositions during the program on Wednesday evening.

But Christopher has another side. He has found he has been able to communicate with the spirit world, and tells a few stories of his encounters, including the spooky "partying" in his family mansion of the spirits of aborted babies from some 30 years previous, when a family member had been involved in some illegal medical activities.

Christopher led a "straight" life (girlfriends and the whole bit...) until a chance sexual encounter with another male in the 1990's suddenly awakened his gay side, and has never looked back since. For the past 3 years or so, Christopher has become an active Buddhist, and literally daily consults with his Buddhist Master in whom he places a lot of trust, and who has helped him interpret some of his ghostly spirit world encounters.

All of the music to be played in this weeks program will also be by Christopher. So Join Allan as he presents this interview with another interesting Hong Kong chinese guy with a fascinating Canto pop musical background.

JOY 94.9FM at 7:00pm, Wednesday, 1st October, in Melbourne, or "Listen Live" by going to the JOY website and click on the "listen Live" icon at the top of the page.

An interesting guest on tonight's program

Earlier this evening, Hugh and Allan had a very interesting discussion with Geoffrey. He is traditional Anglo/Australian, born in the western suburbs of Melbourne, then a family property in Gippsland, and finally back to the western suburbs again. Geoffrey outlined how he later got involved in self-funded support work in India, which grew out of his attendance at the AIDS Conference held in Melbourne in year 200. As a consequence of that conference, and discussions he had with attendees from places like India, he felt the urge to try and help out with training and education in India, on a totally self-funded basis.

So for several years in a row, each year, Geoffery spent time in India helping with AIDS support, training, advice, assistance etc.

More latterly his current involvement is running accomodation and support facilities in the western suburbs of Melbourne, providing fatherly guidance, support, and accomodation for up to eight overseas students here in Melbourne... particularly those who come from difficult and/or poor circumstances in their home country. The objective being to provide them an academic foundation that will set them up for life in the future, and create a path out of poverty. Most of those he supports are younbg gay men, but he also helps and supports some straight students as well, and they all apparently get on very well. Again, all of this primarily provided using Geoffrey's own resources.

Geoffrey also briefly discussed his marriage, his children, coming out, and some difficult family issues that have affected his life.

If you missed the program, then please check out the podcast version of this interview available from the JOY website.

Program details for 17th September

Earlier this evening, on Orange Ribbon, we interviewed Raina, who is of an Anglo-Indian heritage. Her father is Anglo Australian and her mother is Fijian Indian, although Raina was born in Australia, spending her childhood days in Gippsland where she endured a lot of racism.

Raina spoke a lot about the racism experienced, and the racism and queer activism she was involved in when she later went to Monash University. It was at Monash that she met up with two Chinese girls who were of similar mind and experience. Through a series of events, Raina and her two "co-horts" decided to put together a cabaret performance with the objective of highlighting their views on racism, and so Ladies Of Colour Agency (or LOCA) began. (You can do a search on Myspace for Ladies of Colour Agnecy to find their profile.)

We learned more about their performance piece, and also that they have done a number of different audiences, from straight to gay/lesbian, and Raina discussed some of the varied audience reactions... particularly about the "hairy lesbian stripper" criticism from one of their performances.

The girls (as LOCA) will also be performing at the upcoming Melbourne Fringe Festival, where you can obtain more details of their events.

A different, and very entertaining chat on tonights program. Check out the podcast of tonights program from the JOY website if you missed this interesting interview.

(The three girls of LOCA make an important point)

Coming up on Orange Ribbon this week (10th September)

This will be my last post from Hong Kong before I fly out of here again early tomorrow morning, arriving home tomorrow evening, Melbourne time. Hopefully my partner will be able to pick me up from the airport, depending upon whether his dance class will have finished in time or not. Otherwise, I am going to have to take a long (and expensive) cab ride home from the airport.

As usual, I have had a great time back here, meeting a number of new friends, and picking up a couple of interviews. I had hoped to arrange more than that, but circumstances seemed to prevent that happening. But as previously reported via this blog, I did get to chat to two very interesting people here, and these interviews will be run over the next few weeks on Orange Ribbon.

For this coming program (Wednesday 10th September) I will be running the interview I recorded with Chung Yiu two weeks ago. (Refer to my blog entry for 26th August.) A fascinating guy, with a great story to tell. So please do join me this week on Orange Ribbon (7:00-8:00pm Melbourne time) and hear what Chung Yiu chatted to me about.

In the meantime, I am already planning my next return to Hong Kong late next month when I will be back here yet again for another (almost) 4 weeks. But do join me this coming Wednesday evening for my chat with Chung Yiu.

Allan Smales (A final report from Hong Kong before returning to Melbourne tomorrow morning)

Another day, another interview in Hong Kong

During my stay here in Hong Kong this time I have gotten to know Christopher, a Hong Kong Chinese local who is a long-time musician, lyricist and writer, and who was involved with a band here some years ago and became well-known through their recordings and albums here, a number of which were very popular at the time.

Christopher got involved in Bhuddism about 5-6 years ago, and spends a lot of time these days with his so-called Bhuddist Master who is his counsellor and advisor in all things spiritual.

On the subject of things spiritual, Christpher also has the ability to liaise with, and interpret the spirit world. There is a very interesting background to his involvement in this spirit world and he has discussed with me his experiences dealing with the spirits of babies who were illegally aborted here in Hong Kong some 30 years ago.

Last night I was fortunate to record an interview with Christopher which I will be playing on Orange Ribbon sometime after my return to Melbourne next week. Christopher talks about life in the old Hong Kong of his childhood, and also about the "old" Macau he remembers before it was over-run by the casinos of the past 10-15 years or so.

Keep up-to-date by monitoring this Orange Ribbon blog so that I can let you know when I will be running Christopher's prerecorded interview.

• POSTSCRIPT: This interview is scheduled to be run on Orange Ribbon on Wednesday, 1st October, 2008. Listen in for this interesting interview.

Allan Smales (in Hong Kong, but back to Melbourne next week)