Coming Out Day
Jason Chu @ http://www.sfgam.com/

What do you consider your moment of coming out? Was it the moment you came to terms with who you are? Was it the moment you shared a part of your life with the people you loved? Whatever it was, it was the moment you decided to be honest with yourself and perhaps with others.I spent a few minutes on this October 11th, national coming out day, reading some coming out stories online. Some were happy stories. Some weren't so happy. There were some I definitely related to. There were some I wished I could relate to.I came out to myself three years ago, at the age of twenty two. Prior to that, like many of my Chinese peers, I had successfully (if awkwardly) dodged questions relating to dating and marriage by focusing on my studies and convincing others that I was simply not ready to date. Upon coming to a firm realization of my identity, it wasn’t long afterwards that I found myself revealing the truth to my parents, due to an unexpected turn of events.

The incident happened by pure chance. I had unwittingly left my cell phone at home while at work, leading my father to see a text message from one of my male friends, who had innocuously ended the message with *kiss kiss.* Though this may hardly have been a cause for alarm, it certainly was for my mother, who confronted me with the dreaded question upon my return home:

You’re not gay, are you?

It was the question I feared so much that I had done everything possible over the last two decades to prevent it from being asked. Now that my carelessness had presented me with the opportunity, my moment had come – I could no longer lie.

Though to this day I still don’t know where I had gathered the courage to come out to my parents, I’m grateful for having done so, even if it left a gaping wound in our relationship that’s still far from being in the recovery stages, but having done so, the healing process can hopefully begin sooner rather than later. My coming out story isn’t exactly a happy story, but it’s one I’m sure at least some of my brothers and sisters out there can relate. Either way, it's not a story of regret, because it was at that moment where I was more honest and open with myself than I had ever been before. What I didn't realize at the time was that it wasn't to end there - coming out is a lifelong process.To all those who supported me throughout my never-ending coming out story, I give my gratitude. I'm certain I wouldn't be living the life I am now if it weren't for you. To all those who came out and faced rejection, disapproval, or worse, I'm proud of you. I can't think of anyone stronger than you. To all those who haven't come out yet, there’s no need to explain - I understand your situations completely, and I hope that you find your very own moment one day. What's your coming out story?

John Richmond: The Icon of Fashion Rebellion

The world of fashion has its own standards and strictures, despite being seen as a world where creativity is a premium. The pillars of the fashion industry do not take lightly to designers who challenge its norms and traditions, but it is not surprising to find designers who go against the tide and simply follow their instincts. Those who fail are forgotten, while those who succeed shine and shine through. John Richmond is one of those designers who rebelled against the norm and made it through.

Who is John Richmond?

To put it simply, John Richmond is the iconic designer who fused elements of biker chic, street smarts and rock music with the classic elements of haute couture to create his own unique style. Through his keen eye, his masterful tailoring, and his impeccable attention to detail, he has made himself a breed apart from the other fashion designers who are trying to make a name for themselves by being edgy.

John Richmond is an Englishman born in Manchester in 1960. In the 1980s, he moved to London to pursue his studies and later graduated from Kingston University in 1982. Straight out of school, he went to work as a freelance designer for Lano Lano, Fiorucci, Joseph Tricot, Ursula Hudson, among others.

In 1984, John Richmond struck a partnership with the designer Maria Cornejo. It was during this time that he began to bring out his own signature style. The partnership lasted until 1987, after which he released for the first time his own men’s and women’s collection.

The slogan “Destroy, Disorientate, Disorder” was an invention created for John Richmond’s Destroy collection, which was introduced in 1990. It was soon followed by Destroy Denim in 1991. His first boutique in London opened in 1992.

Aside from his irreverent style, John Richmond was also known as a designer with a business sense. In 1995, he formed another partnership with Severio Moschillo to use Moschillo’s global network in an effort to expand his visibility overseas. He used Moschillo’s Falber Confezioni’s staff and facilities in order to create his collections. John Richmond’s clothes and accessories, including ready-to-wear apparel, were then distributed by Moschillo.

The designer also inked a consultancy contract with Valextra in 2000; the deal lasted until 2003. Under the deal, Richmond was to make women’s wear and matching accessories, such as shoes and bags, for Valextra.

John Richmond is married to Angie Hill. They have two children: Harley and Phoenix.

The Style of John Richmond

In his official website, the fashion philosophy of John Richmond has been described as a “celebration of the energy, creativity and unpredictability of youth and street culture.” His designs are marked with irreverence and subversion to the proclaimed standards in the fashion industry, and yet it cannot be denied that his creations are just as stylish and desirable.

The slogan “Destroy, Disorientate, Disorder” was meant to challenge expectations in the industry, including on John Richmond himself. He draws heavily on rock-‘n-roll and punk music for inspiration in his designs. As a result, his clothes are unabashedly sexy, distinctly flaunting and instantly recognizable.

This is the reason why many up-and-coming pop stars choose to dress themselves in John Richmond’s clothes: to borrow from his distinction and to stand out among the crowd. But John Richmond’s celebrity clientele is naturally not limited to the starlets and the wannabes. He has also dressed superstar icons such as Annie Lennox, Mick Jagger and Madonna, to name a few.

But what makes John Richmond a cut above the rest of the edgy designer pack? In a nutshell, his clothes are striking in their difference but definitely wearable. A person donning a John Richmond outfit will definitely appear radically stylish but not look out of place while walking down the street.

His clothes certainly standout. Tailored jackets in fruity hues, with chains and fetishes as adornments; feathery boas trimming collars and cuffs of coats cut from shiny fabric; tight bondage pants paired with elegant checks, sheer, feminine nets against hard leather – these are all typical elements of a John Richmond design. Subversive, irreverent, twisting the accepted norms are incorporations of his style.

John Richmond’s Fall/Winter 2008/2009 Menswear Fashion Show

The subversion, bending of norms, attention to detail and sheer luxury that John Richmond is known for is very much evident in his Fall/Winter 2008/2009 menswear fashion show during Milan’s Fashion Week. Because it is a fall/winter collection, the monochromatic theme and the layering expected for the season were seen in the clothes.

But even though the clothes are overtly masculine, with tapered silhouettes on the coats, jackets and pants, there are feminine overtones to be found in each outfit. The scarves worn by the models had floral patterns, the necklaces had floral pendants, and there was one model who wore a hoodie with a floral lining.

A model also sported a white leather tote that looked like something a well-dressed woman would have on a casual weekend but certainly did not seem out of place hanging from a man’s shoulder. Also, most of the outfits are in velvet, a fabric that is so rich and soft and luxuriously feminine.

The fall/winter collection of 2008/2009 is true John Richmond in style: challenging norms, subverting standards, unique in its difference.

The Gay Market in China

By b brian topaz @ http://www.sfgam.com/

Over the past few years, governments and companies all over the world have been scrambling to find the right strategy for getting into the Chinese marketWhy? Because since the late 1970s, China has slowly but surely been transforming a stagnant economy centrally planned by the Communist government into freer open markets.Companies with the right product and strategy may potentially be able to access the largest market in the world with over 1.3 Billion consumers compared with the United States market of under 300 million consumers.The general barriers against entering the Chinese market include language, culture, and government intervention (The US-China trade deficit is over 200 billion dollars. China continues to undervalue its currency to continually boost exports and slow imports. The politicians and diplomats are working on it.)What if someone wanted to tap into the gay market in China? If the generally accepted “Western” statistic of 10% gay can be applied to most populations, this means that the gay market in China is potentially about 130 million consumers. More conservative numbers have been suggested by surveys and educational studies that place the numbers of gays in China at somewhere between 15 and 30 million. Whichever is the case, the potential for high volume revenue is staggering.

However, the barriers for tapping into this niche market are significant and specific to how homosexuals have been treated once the Communist Party since took over mainland China in 1949. The party was controlled by Mao Zedong for decades and his mandate for the conduct of the Chinese people was one of Puritanism. This meant only traditional relationships that led to procreation were allowed with an outright ban on homosexual activity. It was only in 1997 that sodomy was decriminalized as well as “hooliganism” (seeking homosexual sex in public.) And it was only five years ago that homosexuality was removed from the official Chinese list of mental disorders.

Consequently, China has lagged sorely behind in gay civil rights in comparison to countries such as the United States, Canada and those in Europe. China is also different from a few countries in the Pacific region that, if not officially, are unofficially much more tolerant of gay lifestyles such as in the Philippines, Japan, Thailand, and Singapore. Of course there are certain areas in China that are more tolerant than others. As in most cases, urban areas such as Beijing and Shanghai are generally more tolerant than rural areas. This is even truer in Western colonial areas that until recently were previously not under the control by the Community Party such as Macao and Hong Kong.

The good news for gays in China is the onset of information technology. Today, the number one way that gays are informed and communicate with each other as well as the outside world is through the internet. For the majority of gays, the internet is the only way of expressing their homosexuality. However, in recent years, the Chinese government has realized this and has periodically and sometimes permanently shut down many gay-oriented sites on charges of indecency. Also, while this means of communication and information is fine for urban and suburban Chinese gays with moderate to high incomes, millions of poor rural gays are still literally left in the dark.

Another development that could be seen as encouraging to gays in China is the recent official concern of the Chinese government about AIDS. As recently as last week, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention released a report describing a recent survey of Chinese gays. At the same time, the government has announced a Five-Year plan to address this very important health concern with campaigns specifically targeting gay men.
The Chinese government has acted in large part because of the United Nations mandate on educating the world on issues of HIV/AIDS identification, prevention and treatment. The UN lists China as a country whose progress is slow but moving with the existence of civil involvement.

So, because of UN involvement in HIV/AIDS as a very real threat to China’s health (particularly because many Chinese gay men have been “forced” into straight marriages thus widening the scope of the disease) and China realizing that it is also a threat to the country’s economic well-being, there is a new chance for gays to be recognized as victims of this epidemic, as well as a social reality that needs to be humanely addressed.

While we are waiting for the government to slowly recognize gays in China, how would a company tap into the gay market?

Right now, it seems the best way is to get them where they live. And where they live right now is on the websites. The Chinese government would be more apt to support gay rights if it translates into gay commerce from which the government can get a piece of the action. Once more of these sites transition from purely information and communication to commercial transactions that generate taxable revenue, it will behoove the government to lend any support possible to these gay sites.

What an entrepreneurial company could do is study these sites in detail and ferret out a handle of them with the most potential as far as accessibility, the number of users, format and content. The next step would be to communicate effectively with the website owners or operators and present a products and/or services that would either optimize the functions of the website itself or would be separate consumer items for the website’s users. The best approach would probably be in that order, so that a company offers help and solutions before it offers products or services for sale.The approach that should be utilized in unison to the above is information exchange and networking (meaning people) expansion.

What gays in China need more than anything are resources – to figure out who and what they are, to know it’s okay to be gay, to find others like them, to join others like them in meetings and planned events, and to create a safe and friendly environment in which they can enjoy their lives. Right now, most gays in China do not have any of this.

So, it is incumbent upon those of us on the outside to help gays in China and elsewhere to eventually get where we are, in terms of tolerance and acceptance. In the process, we may be able to offer products and services that they may need or want – and this is a matter of strategic initiative.

If gays in China are reflective of gays in other parts of the world, they are generally better educated and have better incomes than other minorities and thus have more buying power. For example, in the United States, the African-American and Latino-American communities are larger than the Gay-American community. However, the buying power of gays (per capita) is much larger.

Some potential markets that have traditionally been big with gays include gay literature (fiction and non-fiction), gay movies, gay travel (cruises, sight-seeing), music and fashion and accessories, just to name a few.

Once the social and commercial infrastructure is in place, the possibilities of mutual betterment are endless. Progress for gays in China is at the end of the tunnel. Gay-Asian Males have the opportunity to facilitate it through information-sharing as well as commerce.

[The irony of the plight of gays in China is that before the Communist Cultural Revolution, gay lifestyles were generally tolerated, depending on which dynasty was in power, as long as provisions for procreation were involved.]

For more information check out “Homosexuality in China” on Wikipedia.com