The 2023 Prague Pride will be held from August 7th to 13th. Throughout the week, it will host a range of cultural, sporting, and entertainment events.

On Saturday, August 12th, a colourful march, which last year attracted a record-breaking 60,000 participants will take place. Participants will gather on Wenceslas Square and march for over 3 kilometres through the major streets of the city to Letna Park starting at 12:30pm

The Pride Village will be located on Strelecky Island and will be featuring live music and shows throughout the week from 6pm until 10pm. The after parade party on Saturday 13th August will also be held there.

In the last two weeks, two different reports for best (and worst) countries to travel to have been released.

The first, released by journalists Lyric and Asher Fergusson, creators of the site Asherfergusson.com, dedicated to safe travelling, lists Canada, Sweden and The Netherlands in the top three best places for LGBTQI+ people to travel to. Malta follows at number four, Spain at four, Belgium at nine and the UK at number ten. 

The report puts the USA at number twenty-five, because of the lack of protection against discrimination in certain states and Italy scores a meagre fifty-third place.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the bottom of the list is occupied by Brunei (death by stoning), Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Kuwait. The UAE ranks seventh from the bottom, reminding us that Dubai may be a futuristic city, but there is still a law on the book punishing sex between men with death. And Malaysia, another key tourism destination, also rank poorly, eight from the bottom - here the punishment is between 5 and 14 years in jail, with or without corporal punishment.

Other popular tourism destinations ranking amongst the worst are: Egypt (182/203), Tunisia (181/203), Morocco (179/203), Maldives (174/203), Kenya (162/203), Jamaica (161/203). Russia is number 148 of 203.

The report can be viewed in its entirety here.

The other report, published by longstanding LGBTQI+ publisher Spartacus, lists Malta at number one (the country will host Europride 2023), followed by Canada and Switzerland. Following at joint number four are Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, Portugal and Uruguay. Then joint at number nine are Germany, Spain, UK and Iceland. 

Again, unsurprisingly, the bottom ones are Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Chechnya. The UAE, Qatar and Nigeria are just one notch up from the bottom.

Half of the world may be addicted to RuPaul's Drag Race - and its many international franchises, however drag performers are still proving to be stirring the fury of the conservative establishment, at least in the United States.

AT least 15 states with hardline Republican majorities, are currently pushing through bills to restrict the performance of drag artists, banning them altogether in public places and if minors are in attendance.

The first of the twenty or so laws going in this direction passed in the state of Tennessee on February 23rd, justified - as predictable - as an measure to protect children. "It gives confidence to parents that they can take their kids to a public or private show and will not be blindsided by a sexualised performance," Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, a Republican, said in a statement.

This month, Johnson and his Senate colleagues passed a bill criminalising "adult cabaret entertainment" in public or where it could be seen by children, though it would still be allowed in age-restricted venues. The bill defined such entertainment as including "adult-oriented" performances by strippers, go-go dancers or "male or female impersonators."

A first offence would be a misdemeanour crime, and a subsequent offence a felony, carrying a sentence of between one and six years in prison.

Tennessee, like other states, already has public indecency and obscenity laws that ban excessively violent or sexual performances in front of minors, regardless of the performer's gender. Drag performances typically do not involve nudity or stripping, however now they would be somehow assimilated to such shows.

Apart from being a direct attack to LGBTQ+ people's freedom of expression, the bill also represents a danger to the trans community. Kathy Sinback, the executive director of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) of Tennessee, said that because the bill’s language around what constitutes performance is “not well defined,” it could lead to broader attacks on trans people across the state. 

“[The bill] gives everyone who’s enforcing it across the state a license to bully not only drag performers but potentially trans people who are doing any sort of performance. … It can be interpreted as broadly as the narrow-minded people in the state want to interpret it,” Sinback said.

The law now will head to Governor Bill Lee, also a hardline Republican, for signing into law. However, even if he vetoes it, the Legislature can override his actions and enact the bill into law as soon as April 1st.

Australian authorities have recommended visitors to the forthcoming Sydney Mardi Gras/World Pride event to get vaccinated against Monkeypox ahead of travelling to the event.

According to ABC News, infection cases have dropped in many countries since the peak of last year. In Australia there were no official cases reported in 2023 so far, however with many of the 500,000 visitors coming from countries where cases of Monkeypox are still being recorded, local health authorities have recommend festival attendees to protect themselves by getting vaccinated.

Vincent Cornelisse, a sexual health physician and senior lecturer at the Kirby Institute told the ABC that "It's quite likely we'll see visitors from both of these places come to WorldPride, and there's a real possibility a few of these people might have undiagnosed Monkeypox infections."

Dr Cornelisse said it was unlikely Australia would see a large outbreak of the disease, but that it made sense for people to take precautions because of "how uncomfortable" an infection could be, as well as the potential for more serious complications.