Disney’s Gay Love nest

Disney’s castle logo is more than well known, but few people may know that it was modeled on a gay love nest. The original nest is Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany. The castle was built by Ludwig Otto Friedrich Wilhelm, who was king of Bavaria, as a retreat for composer Richard Wagner with whom he is reputed to have had a gay relationship. Ludwig had first heard Wagner’s operas at the age of 15 and was totally struck by them.
Ludwig was just 18 when he ascended the Bavarian throne after his father’s death. He had little or no interest in ruling Bavaria, as his main interests were in art, architecture and music. Ludwig never married, nor did he have any mistresses. It is, however, known from his diary, private letters, and other personal documents, that he had strong homosexual desires which he battled to suppress. Throughout his life, Ludwig had a succession of close friendships with men, including his aide de camp, Prince Paul, a member of Bavaria's wealthy Thurn und Taxis family, his chief equerry and Master of the Horse, Richard Hornig, Hungarian actor Josef Kainz, and courtier Alfons Weber.
Neuschwanstein was designed as an homage to Wagner’s music and as representations of the musical mythology in the operas Tannhäuser, Lohengrin and later Parsifal. The castle was commissioned in 1868 and construction began in 1869, and although it was not complete, the King moved into his palace in 1884. The building was never completed due to the King’s death in 1886.

THERAPY 21’ST BIRTHDAY SEXTRAVAGANZA 2017

THERAPY 21’ST BIRTHDAY SEXTRAVAGANZA 2017
The iconic and legendary local “queer dance party” brand, Therapy, takes partying to an even higher level for Therapy’s 21st birthday - Sextravaganza 2017, on Saturday 11 November at Carfax.
Join us as for our ‘coming-of-age’ celebration of music, glamour, cultural and gender equality and above all else, the love of a good time!
Therapy is not about selling a VIP status, all of its patrons are VIPs, it is not about big name djs, although it has had many of those! It is about the party experience that is uniquely Therapy, and how a patron feels about the attitude of that.
Therapy’s 20th birthday event ‘Love Injection’ was proclaimed “Party of the Year” by MambaOnline in 2016, and with the ‘coming-of-age’ aspect of this event, Therapy has an even bigger and better plan for this huge milestone in its proud history of entertaining clubland.
It’s definitely cool to have the parties back in the city, with no traffic, minimal interferance, and being able to make a noise! Jozi can be alot of fun! Therapy returns to Carfax, a legendary venue that once again, will pull out all the stops for Therapy on this special night.

Sleep your way around the world

With our weak rand, travel, particularly international travel is a very costly pleasure. This is not so much because of the cost of the ticket, though a return trip to Cape Town in high season can cost over R4000 whereas a ticket on the same dates to Rome or Bangkok is around R7500. The bigger problem is once you are there, where are you going to stay as accommodation will cost a whole lot more? Because of this a lot of people are turning to groups like Queer Couchsurfers on Facebook, and they report that this is the way to travel. Where else can you find free places to stay when travelling around the world, or even at home in SA? You may even get a shag into the deal!
There is www.misterbnb.com which has over 10 000 hosts in 130 countries around the world, and www.staywithfamily.com .They arrange home swaps or sharing for the gay traveller and have 4000+ members around the world. On the homeswapping side there is www.homearoundtheworld.com ,which offers not only home swapping but also hospitality exchanges, room exchanges, house sitting, couch surfing and even vacation sharing, so you can avoid those single supplements that can make travel for single people so expensive. And www.crashpadder.com has now apparently added an LGBT group to their site. Anyone out there with more info in this line, please send it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. so we can share it with others who may be interested.

Cape-Town based transgender NPO receives cash boost from LGBTI+ community

One of South Africa’s most effective transgender organisations received a financial boost on 2nd September through a LGBTI+ fundraising initiative in the Mother City.

Representatives from Gender Dynamix attended the last Conversations event at Gate69 on Bree Street in the CBD to take receipt of a cheque for R10,000.

Conversations, launched in October 2013, was a monthly networking and social event for LGBTI+ professionals living and working in and around Cape Town. Over four years, 48 highly successful events were held in upmarket hotels, bars and restaurants stretching from Newlands to Camps Bay.

As well as facilitating face-to-face conversations between LGBTI+ professionals, be it for business or social networking purposes, Conversations was also socially responsible by raising money for and awareness of local charities. The money raised for Gender Dynamix partly came from the door charge paid by the attendees at the Conversations events from November 2016 – August 2017.

Gender Dynamix, founded in 2005 and based in Observatory, was the first African-based not-for-profit organisation to focus on the transgender community. Its vision today is to play a key role in realising the human rights of transgender and gender non-conforming people within and beyond the borders of South Africa.

Working within a human rights framework, Gender Dynamix supports transgender people to access and advocate for their rights; increases awareness and visibility of transgender people in South Africa and beyond; and promotes freedom of expression of gender identity, focusing on transgender, transsexual and other gender non-conforming people.

To achieve its aims, Gender Dynamix undertakes a wide range of activities which include Legal and Policy Reform Advocacy, Access to Gender Affirming Health Care Services in Training of Medical Professionals to deliver gender affirming healthcare services to their patients. The Regional Movement Building Advocacy works allows for collaborations of Trans Organisations within the SADC Region. Gender Dynamix Research Portfolio concentrates on Transgender Needs Assessments. The GDX general advocacy work focus on significant others, family, friends and colleagues of trans people with information and education; running programmes and self-empowering workshops for transgender people to build their self-esteem and assertiveness in society; undertaking outreach work in townships; lobbying government, civil society, national and international decision-makers and the media to combat prejudice against transgender people; and playing an integral role in transgender activism in South Africa, Africa and globally by participating in relevant human rights networks.

Andrew Howard, founder and director of Conversations, said: “As a Board member at the Pride Shelter Trust for three years, I became aware of the immense challenges and discrimination that transgender and gender non-conforming people face in their everyday lives, for example, when trying to access healthcare and finding work. I therefore chose Gender Dynamix as the fourth and final not-for-profit that Conversations in Cape Town would support because of the efforts they make to combat this discrimination.

Risk and Rates of Depression in HIV

Depression is the most common psychiatric illness worldwide, with the average person having a lifetime risk of about 10% of having a depressive episode (1). It is also one of the most underdiagnosed psychiatric conditions, especially in men.
However, research has shown that people with HIV have a much higher risk of developing depression, about 2-3 times higher (2), with some studies showing rates higher than 50% (3), of people who have HIV also having depression.
So what does this mean for you? If you have HIV you stand a greater risk for developing depression due to a number of factors. However, depression is treatable, and so the sooner you recognise the symptoms, the sooner you can get help.
So what are the symptoms of depression? Depression is more than just a low mood, or feeling sad. It effects just about every aspect of our lives, and that’s why its so important to get treated if you do have depression. Below is a list of symptoms that may indicate depression. Some of these you may not have even noticed in yourself, but may have been pointed out by a friend or co-worker.